September 25, 2021
1. Do you have one or more online trading or investment accounts?
Yes, I have one or more accounts that I access online using a computer.
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?
Yes
3. On average, how often do you access your online account?
Daily/more than once a day
4. On average, how often are trades made in your online account, whether by you or someone else?
Once to a few times a week.
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):
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.)
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.)
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 : 2-5 Years
Bonds : None
Options : 2-5 Years
Mutual Funds : 2-5 Years
ETFs : 2-5 Years
Futures : None
Cryptocurrencies : 5+ Years
Commodities : None
ClosedEnd Funds : 2-5 Years
Money Market Funds : 2-5 Years
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?
Nothing. I did not know trading of a specific stock could be restricted at all.
11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing?
Given all I have learned about PFOF, dark pools, insider trading, and how trading firms/market makers use information about retails' trends in their favor or against the stocks we prefer to trade, I am afraid to invest in the stock market. There is no transparency in the stock market everything is rigged in favor of investment banks/hedge-funds/high-frequency trading. The thing I have learned over the past 2+ years is to buy shares in what everyone else is buying and eschew the small companies that are in research and development phase as investing in those will more often than not lead to large losses.
Finally, there are people on TV telling us which stocks to buy or sell, but I have lost money following the advice of Jimmy Cramer (CNBC), as well as other pump and dump schemes on the internet. It's a scary marketplace and I am not sure if I will continue to put my hard earned money in a stock market that does not really follow traditional fundamentals and metrics of investing, and has the capability to crash at any time and without any notice.