Just how mighty are active retail traders?

They are a force to be reckoned with. But most punters are still pretty boring

Aug 21st 2021

JUST TWO years ago the future of investing seemed to involve fewer and fewer people. Retail investors were piling into “passive” index funds, which track a broad basket of stocks for a tiny fee. Active fund managers, whether swaggering hedge-fund gurus or staid mutual-fund bosses, were in retreat as index and quantitative funds swelled. More automation seemed inevitable. A future in which human investors vanished altogether, replaced by slick, powerful machines swapping shares at near-lightspeed seemed just around the corner.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Jacks are all traders”