Half of GameStop stock buyers were first-time traders: survey

60% of the retail investor crowd will continue to use Robinhood, Cardify CEO said

Cardify CEO Derrick Fung told FOX Business' “Varney and Co.” that company data revealed 50% of GameStop stock buyers were first-time investors.

Stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment made headlines in late January after seeing an unexpected surge in volatility following web postings on the popular Reddit message board WallStreetBets.

AFTER GAMESTOP STOCK FRENZY, 'VERY LITTLE' GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO REGULATE TRADING: FORMER SEC CHAIRMAN

Many of these traders were new to the game, according to Cardify, which tracks consumer spending across debit and credit cards. Fung said his company ran “both quantitative and qualitative surveys” and found details on the makeup of the GameStop investor crowd, as well as how they feel about the trading app Robinhood after it paused trading on some stocks during the short squeeze.

DERRICK FUNG: “After studying some of the insights, we learned that half of the consumers that we saw deposit money into Robinhood and purchase GameStop stock – 50% of them had been new, first-time traders. And on top of that, 50% of them made their largest ever DIY day trade ever over the last four weeks.

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“Sixty percent of the consumers who use Robinhood continue to love the platform. We did see a slight dip in deposits, about 16%. One-sixth of consumers who were on Robinhood actually decided to turn off the platform when Robinhood decided to stop letting consumers trade GameStop and AMC. However, 60% of the consumers still love the product and we believe will continue to use Robinhood moving forward.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
GME GAMESTOP CORP. 10.31 +0.01 +0.10%
AMC AMC ENTERTAINMENT 2.92 -0.06 -2.01%

I think this is a sign of a new movement of the retail investor. When you think about last year in the U.S., Robinhood adding more accounts than all the other brokerages – commission-free trading, fractional shares, the concept of the meme or the FOMO stock. I think as consumers continue to stay at home, there's going to be a lot more difference. Not just Robinhood, you've got Coinbase going public very soon. You've got all of these hot new companies going public – Airbnb, DoorDash. So we will continue to follow these trends. And we roll out data on a weekly basis and we'll continue to cover what's happening in the markets.”

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FOX Business’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this article.