Stock FAQs

how much of the stock market is owned by individual investors

by Odie Skiles Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Individuals Own Stocks. It is households that own equities, 37.6% of total equities in the U.S., and equities represent households’ largest financial asset holdings at 38.2%. According to the Federal Reserve, 52% of HHs in the U.S. own stocks (65 million households), which shows the figure is greater than one percent of income earners (estimated at 1.6 million households). Our analysis inside this section shows that the low balance reported by the Federal Reserve – median value of $40 thousand for a household’s stock holdings

Full Answer

What kind of investors own the stock market?

In a white paper, Steven Rosenthal and Lydia Austin of the Tax Policy Center have broken out exactly which kind of investors own the stock market. They found that a majority of corporate stock is owned by different types of retirement plans, the largest being IRAs and defined-benefit plans.

What percentage of households own stocks?

According to the Federal Reserve, 52% of HHs in the U.S. own stocks (65 million households), which shows the figure is greater than one percent of income earners (estimated at 1.6 million households).

What percentage of the market is owned by retail investors?

Based on that, retail investors own 77% of the market capitalization in total via stocks (held directly), mutual and pension funds. Some would even argue that all three categories are “retail assets,” it’s just that funds are “bundled” and also managed by professional investors.

How many Americans are invested in the stock market?

More Americans than ever are invested in the stock market. Data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances shows that 53% of all US families owned publicly traded stock in some form in 2019. That is up from 32% in 1989. The median stock value held among households in the market was $40,000.

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What percentage of the stock market is individual investors?

The retail trading surge that began with pandemic lockdowns has now abated, as total equity volume from individual investors fell to 19% in the third quarter, down from 24% at the start of this year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission and market data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Who owns 90% of the stock market?

U.S. stock market ownership distribution Ownership peaked at 65% in 2007 and fell significantly due to the Great Recession. As of 2013, the top 1% of households owned 38% of stock market wealth. As of 2013, the top 10% own 81% of stock wealth, the next 10% (80th to 90th percentile) own 11% and the bottom 80% own 8%.

What percentage of stock market is retail investors?

By the end of the year, about 11% of trading volume in the 1,500 stocks in the Russell 3000 RUA +1.02% index with the highest market values was from retail money. That is above the median of just over 8% since 2016.

What percentage of the stock market is owned by institutional investors?

Pensions & Investments. "80% of Equity Market Cap Held By Institutions." Accessed Jan. 31, 2022.

How many millionaires has the stock market created?

The roaring stock market and crypto gains created more than a million new millionaires in the U.S. last year, according to a new report. The number of Americans with $1 million or more in investible assets surged to a record 14.6 million in 2021, according to a report from wealth research firm the Spectrem Group.

What percentage of wealth is owned by top 1?

32.3%The top 1% owned a record 32.3% of the nation's wealth as of the end of 2021, data show. The share of wealth held by the bottom 90% of Americans, likewise, has declined slightly since before the pandemic, from 30.5% to 30.2%.

Who owns the most stock in the world?

The natural stock pick held by the world's wealthiest person is Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the giant tech company Bill Gates co-founded with Paul Allen in 1975. Gates still owns almost 103 million shares of the company worth $15.4 billion.

How many individual investors are there in the US?

We estimate in 2020 there were 13,665,475 accredited investor households in America. Roughly 10.6% of all American households were accredited in 2020. Further, accredited investor households controlled roughly $73.3 trillion in wealth in 2020.

Who owns the most stocks in Apple?

Top 10 Owners of Apple IncStockholderStakeShares ownedThe Vanguard Group, Inc.7.46%1,206,772,307Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Investm...5.51%890,923,410BlackRock Fund Advisors4.18%676,873,946SSgA Funds Management, Inc.3.79%613,852,2746 more rows

Who are the biggest owners of corporate America?

Thus, when combined, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street constitute the single largest shareholder in at least 40 percent of all listed companies in the United States.

What percent of trading is institutional?

Most of the trading that happens on the market is done by institutional investors. By some estimates, institutional investors account for 70% of stock trading volume. The percentage of corporate shares held by institutional investors has increased dramatically in the last 60 years.

Who owns the stock market?

Intercontinental ExchangeNew York Stock ExchangeOwnerIntercontinental ExchangeKey peopleSharon Bowen (Chair) Lynn Martin (President)CurrencyUnited States dollarNo. of listings2,400Market capUS$26.2 trillion (2021)8 more rows

What is the purpose of capital markets?

Individual Investors. U.S. capital markets are where investors, small and large, put capital to work to drive innovation, economic growth and job creation. Our markets have long enabled businesses to grow, governments to invest in infrastructure, and individuals to save for retirement and education. The U.S. capital markets are largest in the world ...

Why are the capital markets important?

The U.S. capital markets are largest in the world and continue to be among the deepest, most liquid and most efficient .

What age group has the highest stock ownership?

Families with a head of household aged 45 to 54 had the highest rate of stock ownership in 2019, with 58% of families in the stock market in some form. That said, the difference in ownership rates between age groups is not large.

What is the lowest stock ownership rate in 2019?

People 75 or older had the lowest ownership rate in 2019, at 47%, followed by those under 35, at 48%. The value of stock owned, however, is much higher for older Americans, who have had more time to accumulate their investments.

Do wealthy people have more money in stock?

Wealthier Americans also tend to have more money in stock. Families in the top 10% of income earners accounted for 70% of the dollar value of all stock holdings in 2019, with a median of $432,000 worth of stock per invested household. Meanwhile, the bottom 60% of income earners owned only 7% of all stock that year.

Can you buy stock on your own?

People who buy stock on their own become direct owners. But people can invest in other ways, including actively managed mutual funds or passive versions like index funds, as well as through retirement plans that put their money in the stock market. Those avenues result in indirect ownership.

Do people with higher incomes own stock?

Investing requires money, so it follows that families with higher incomes and net worth own stock more often and purchase more of it. But there are also differences in how they own the stock, with wealthier families much more likely to have directly purchased stock as part of their portfolio compared to those with lower incomes.

How many HHs own stocks?

According to the Federal Reserve, 52% of HHs in the U.S. own stocks (or 65 million HHs). This figure shows stock ownership is greater than 1% of income earners, which is estimated at 1.6 million HHs. Fed data also states the median value of a HH’s stock holdings is $40,000, representing 53% of total average HH financial assets. This figure also points to stock ownership expanding farther than the 1%, as this balance would be significantly more for high income earners (over $400,000 or $500,000, depending upon the source).

What percentage of the S&P 500 is made up of financials?

Around 50% of the S&P 500 is made up of information technology (22%), health care (14%) and financials (13%) stocks. (Please see the Appendix for subcategory breakouts by sector)

What is the capital market?

U.S. capital markets are where investors, small and large, put capital to work to drive innovation, economic growth and job creation. Our markets have long enabled businesses to grow, governments to invest in infrastructure, and individuals to save for retirement and education. The U.S. capital markets are largest in the world and continue to be among the deepest, most liquid and most efficient. U.S. equity markets represent 41% of the $75 trillion in global equity market cap, or $30 trillion; this is 3.8x the next largest market, the EU (excluding the U.K.). The diversity, depth and breadth of U.S. equities markets (all of U.S. capital markets really) enable investor choice.

Why do we need diversity in investment products?

It is also what provides individual (and institutional) investors choice to manage their retirement and other savings accounts in a manner that fits their investment objectives and needs. Investors need choice based on different return profiles and financial characteristics. In other words, they need choice in order to develop their own portfolio to reach their individual investment objectives (retirement, children’s education, etc.).

How much of the US retirement is funded by IRAs?

This differs from many other countries or regions, where citizens are highly reliant on government funded retirement plans. In the U.S., 52.1% of the $34.6 trillion in retirement assets are individually funded by defined contribution pension plans, IRAs and annuities. The other 47.9% of retirement assets are funded by federal, state and local governments, as well as by defined benefit pension plans.

Our Data Sources

A great source of this information is the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The most recent SCF dataset was released for 2019. We use this data when we looked at how millionaires made their money – it contains a lot of juicy information you can’t find (reliably) anywhere else.

Where Do People Put Their Money?

If so few people own stock, and those that do own stock mostly hold it in retirement accounts, where do people keep their money?

Conclusions

Building wealth is difficult but it’s made harder given the financial scenario many young people are in. The SCF also discusses other areas of American’s financial lives and one such area is debt and debt burden. Overall debt obligations decreased from 2013 to 2016 with one exception – education debt (yes, student loans). That remains high.

What do retail investors use?

Retail investors mostly use retail brokers and advisors. What an institutional investor needs from their broker is very different from what retail investors need. Larger institutional orders are orders typically “ worked ” during the day using sophisticated algorithms to minimize the impact.

Why do regulators have a variety of rules?

Regulators have a variety of rules to protect smaller investors. Because sometimes finance and investing is complicated, regulators tend to protect retail investors more than others. In contrast, regulators generally free institutional investors to choose for themselves how to trade.

Is a retail investor a real person?

Source: Nasdaq Economic Research. None of these prescriptive rules consistently capture the same orders or customers, nor do they actually define a retail investor. In fact, most actually catch a combination of retail and institutional trading. Retail investors are real people.

Is retail investing real?

Retail investors are real people. Retail investors come with a variety of wealth and sophistication, but at a high level, they’re expected to be people, not firms or computer-driven trading strategies. So another, more intuitive approach is to look for orders from a “natural person.”.

Is the inclusion of natural persons as institutional investors circular?

The inclusion of natural persons as institutional investors is somewhat circular. This isn’t an error; it just highlights the fact that additional rules are intended to protect the less financially aware retail investors, while limiting the regulatory costs for those with more experience.

Can public data distinguish retail trading from other trading?

There are a few important points here. First, public data does not easily distinguish retail trading from other trading, but knowing how retail trade, we can get indications from different sources. Some of that data also shows that retail accounts range from very passive to quite active traders.

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