If you were to ask 100 people what the average trader is supposed to look like, most respondents imagine a man under 40 based in Europe or the United States. But, this assumption is not as realistic as it once was. In the cryptosphere, as in the rest of the financial markets, women are taking their rightful place and starting to buy bitcoin (BTC).
Women a priori more successful?
In a survey conducted by Coin Telegraph, it appears that the number of female users has increased between 22% and 160% on the majority of crypto exchanges during the year 2020.
And that’s not all. Female traders are statistically outperforming their male counterparts. A study published by Financial Skills in 2015 actually shows that women significantly outperform men in equity trading. For their part, men are 2.5 times more likely to break the rules imposed by their trading desk or investment fund. They are therefore more likely to take risks to achieve better results.
Yet, in the sample of junior traders analyzed, men lost more money than women. Furthermore, women consistently do better in shorts (58% success rate) than men (52%). As a reminder, at the highest level, a 6% difference in success rate on similar strategies is a significant difference, giving women a significant advantage in the short exercise.
Robinhood wants more women customers
Robinhood’s number of female customers nearly quadrupled between February 2020 and February 2021. That’s a 369% increase year-over-year. Women now represent nearly 30% of Robinhood’s active clients. In addition, 40% of female users trade digital assets.
In an interview with Market Insider, Robinhood COO Gretchen Howard said her main goal for 2020 is to “significantly increase” the number of women registered on the Robinhood platform. Based on the numbers announced by the broker, Howard has largely met her goal.
In order to achieve his goal, Howard set up a task force, which studies customer data to better understand female investor behavior. The group found that women took more time to educate themselves before acting. So the company began producing educational content aimed at popularizing financial jargon. At the same time, content with tips on how to invest small amounts of money and limit risks was put forward.
In the S-1 prospectus filed by Robinhood for its IPO, the broker announced 12.5 million users with funded accounts by the end of 2020, compared to 5.1 million in 2019. Therefore, we can assume that more than 3 million women are currently trading stocks and digital assets on the financial services company.
