eToro reveals key findings of Q2 2023 retail investor survey
Online broker eToro has published key findings of its Q2 2023 retail investor survey.
The Retail Investor Beat was based on a survey of 10,000 retail investors across 13 countries and 3 continents. The following countries had 1,000 respondents: UK, US, Germany, France, Australia, Italy, and Spain. The following countries had 500 respondents: Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
The survey reveals that self-directed investors across the world are worried about recession, leaning against the bull market narrative, being contrarian, and using AI tools. There are also now more of them, and they are investing for the long term.
All five Retail Investor Beat confidence metrics fell quarter-on-quarter, with the number of investors feeling confident about their portfolio, the global economy, and their domestic economy all down by five percentage points (to 71%, 40% and 45% respectively).
The threat of a home market recession surged to become the biggest received risk amongst global retail investors (18%), while far fewer saw inflation as the top risk (17%), or international conflict (12%).
The underperforming and cheaper ‘real-economy’ sectors such as banks (15%), energy (15%), and real estate (12%), as well as UK (15%) and emerging markets (15%), are still very popular.
While sentiment has dropped, many retail investors are still backing the markets by a factor of 3-to-1. Over the last three months, 31% increased the amount of money they regularly contribute to their portfolio while just 12% scaled back their contributions. The picture is similar over the next three months, with 31% planning to up contributions while 11% say they will reduce them.
The survey was conducted from 2nd of June to 14th of June 2023 and carried out by research company Opinium. Retail investors were defined as self-directed or advised and had to hold at least one investment product including shares, bonds, funds, investment ISAs or equivalent. They did not need to be eToro users.