August 28, 2021
1. Do you have one or more online trading or investment accounts?
Yes, I have one or more accounts that I access both online using a computer and using a mobile app.
2. If your response to Question 1 is Yes, do you think you would trade or invest if you could not do so online using a computer or using a mobile app?
No
3. On average, how often do you access your online account?
Once to a few times a week
4. On average, how often are trades made in your online account, whether by you or someone else?
Less often than once a month.
5. If you access your account online, did you have the account first, and only began to access it electronically later? Or did you open the account with the idea that you would access it electronically immediately?
I downloaded an app or visited a website first, and then opened up an account with the company
6. My goals for trading or investing in my online account are (check all that apply):
Keep the amount of money I have, while keeping up with inflation
Save and grow my money for short-term goals (in the next year or two)
Save and grow my money for medium- to long-term goals
7. What would you like us to know about your experience with the features of your online trading or investment platform? (Examples of features are: social networking tools games, streaks, or contests with prizes points, badges, and leaderboards notifications celebrations for trading visual cues, like changing colors ideas presented at order placement or other curated lists or features subscription and membership tiers or chatbots.)
I don't have the issue with a platform I am using. However, there is a negative feedback loop that is associated with gamification of anything (eg. Facebook). The nature of the push notification is not well known and often times, to me, occurs for a specific security that is being propped up. We have no visibility whether the push was indeed promoted/paid for by the company or a hedge fund and not just because the price rose significantly - causing FOMO effect.
8. If you were trading or investing prior to using an online account, how have your investing and trading behaviors changed since you started using your online account? (For example, the amount of money you have invested, your interest in learning about investing and saving for retirement, the amount of time you have spent trading, your knowledge of financial products, the number of trades you have made, the amount of money you have made in trading, your knowledge of the markets, the number of different types of financial products you have traded, or your use of margin.)
N/A
9. How much experience do you have trading or investing in the following products (None, 12 months, 1-2 years, 2-5 years, 5+ years):
Stocks : 1-2 Years
Bonds : None
Options : Less Than 12 Months
Mutual Funds : None
ETFs : Less Than 12 Months
Futures : Less Than 12 Months
Cryptocurrencies : None
Commodities : None
ClosedEnd Funds : None
Money Market Funds : None
Variable Insurance Products : None
Business Development Companies : None
Unit Investment Trusts : None
10. What is your understanding, if any, of the circumstances under which trading or investing in your account can be suspended or restricted?
There are a few: unavailable the security, issues with the brokerage, high volatility of a security (which should be global - market, not local to the broker. I have seen Robinhood stock be halted on all exchanges except Robinhood brokerage accounts), request of the company to hold trades by the commission/exchange, delisting of the company on the exchange.
11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing?
For the online trading/investing, we are being inundated with articles with what I think are, for a lack of a better word, pumps and dumps. Main actors I see are MarketWatch and Motley Fool. At least one of them is an arm of a hedge fund, and retail investors are being mislead when reading these articles assuming the aforementioned (and not just them) are advising / relaying news to aid the investors. Such articles should include all the investors within the issuer, as well as full disclosure of the author on the money received and their full position for all the tickers provided in the article. This should be at the top page before the headline, and highlighted without requiring any interaction on behalf of an investor to be shown. Then the retail may have a chance at understanding why they are being feed these articles.