Who are the "Retail Trader Army", and How Have They Been in the Spotlight for the Past Two Years?

If you follow the markets at all, then you’ve probably heard of the term retail trader army recently. Since the beginning of 2020, retail trading – as a share of overall market activity – has surged from somewhere between 15% and 18% to more than 30%, according to a report published by Credit Suisse.

Retail traders, also known as individual investors, have become one of the most disruptive forces in the stock market over the past two years, including the GameStop and WallStreetbets mania in early 2020. The GameStop bubble has come and gone but one thing may be here to stay: A large group of new, younger, more social-media-savvy retail traders who speak emoji and Reddit.
But who are retail traders exactly?

A retail trader can be anyone from an employee who's on the stock options plan at their company to someone who's been watching the financial news and deciding to follow along on the markets while they trade stocks in their free time.

These retail traders aren't big firms or banks, but rather people with money to invest and a desire to grow it further by investing in the market directly.

Why do people trade?

Investing can be an intimidating and frustrating task, but it doesn’t have to be. With so many options available today, like online stock trading and social investing, investing has become easier than ever.

And with record numbers of individual investors trading stocks in recent years, we now have a market full of novice traders who are looking for tips and advice on how to invest.

So why do people trade? Because it’s fun. To many, trading stocks is a lot like gambling.

Only with better odds and a bigger pay-off. It’s always exciting to see your profits pile up, and you never know when you might hit it big.

No matter how much experience you have as an investor, there’s always something new to learn or a new strategy to try out. And every stock is different, so no day will be exactly like another.

Investing doesn’t have to be intimidating, frustrating, or overly complicated. In fact, it can be a lot of fun! And you don’t need to buy a fancy trading app or spend hours researching stocks to get started.

How did the trend happen?

These self-made men and women are reinventing trading on their own terms. They’re recreating Wall Street.

Without a college degree, without a personal mentor, without fancy degrees or four-figure education. They’re making waves that have been mistaken for tsunamis on the beach, thanks to commission-free trading apps like Robinhood and social media like Reddit.

But how did this happen?

Over ten years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find an individual investor on Wall Street. These days, you can hardly log into your brokerage account without seeing a plethora of small accounts.

This is largely courtesy of retail trading. The fact is, the silent majority was finally ready to rise to action. You see, this trader army knew exactly what results they wanted.

These successful retail traders were in the pursuit of:

• Life of independence in the retail trading space.
• Liberty to trade on a level playing field.
• And the pursuit of free enterprise social market happiness.

The trader army unlocked the minds of those who had a dream to be a retail trader on their own terms, but didn't know just where to start.

The retail trader army taught them how.

Trader Army Soldiers Welcome

Now retail traders (people like you and me) are using social media platforms to share trading ideas and strategies with each other; turning into an army that's been disrupting global stock markets over the past year or so.

The Stonk trader army knows that we must think logically about trading spaces. Our band of social traders asks you to question everything you know about the trading space. Investing your time in uncovering the game theory of the investment space is worth remembering.

Thanks to a band of retail trader deplorables, we're able to see that freedom from the mainstream investment schemes is happening.

Get ready to enlist as a retail trader now. It's time to hold the line in the Retail Trader Army!

And nothing can stop what is coming.