Top myths about women and investing — and why they don’t apply on eToro

Happy International Women’s Day! In honour of our female investors (present and future), eToro did a deep dive into the data on how women invest on our platform. The results can help set the record straight about some commonly held, yet erroneous beliefs at least when it comes to the women in our investing community. 

Are you ready to bust some myths with us? Here we go…

Myth #1: Women trade less often than men.
What the data shows: Women and men on eToro hold their positions for a similar length of time.
We’ve all heard this myth, and numerous articles (including this one) proclaim its validity in their headlines. However, our research showed that women trading on eToro had an average holding period only slightly longer (nine days, to be exact) than men did not enough to be statistically significant.

Myth #2: Women are more averse to making financial decisions than men are.
What the data shows: Conversion rate on eToro is equal for females and males.
While it may still be true that men are more likely to decide to invest, the stereotype that women are more reluctant to make investing decisions just doesn’t hold true for our users. The percentage of users who registered on eToro and then funded their accounts (a clear signal of intent to invest) was the same for both men and women.

Myth #3: Women don’t invest in crypto
What the data shows: Investment in crypto on eToro is equal for females and males.
Many studies claim that there is a major gap between men and women when it comes to crypto, with men investing twice as much in digital currency. Not so on eToro! In 2021, more than half of our users, both male and female, opened new crypto positions. 56% of men opened crypto positions, while 52% of women did as well.

What’s different about eToro?

The data only tells us the story in numbers, and not necessarily how we got there. However, our vision has always been “opening the global markets so that everyone can trade and invest in a simple and transparent way.” Everyone whatever their current level of experience, financial literacy or wealth. 

The social element of our trading platform is both unique and integral to the eToro experience. Doing anything as part of a community can help to boost confidence, encourage cooperation, and leverage shared knowledge and this is also true for investing. Our wider social investing community has long been what draws people to eToro, and recently we created Invest With Her, a place for our female investors to call home.

Join the movement! #InvestWithHer

This new community within a community aims to ensure that gender does not become an obstacle to entering the world of finance and investing. Invest With Her is a space where women worldwide can connect, share experiences, and ask questions in a safe, supportive virtual environment. They receive encouragement from the success stories of their female peers, and strengthen their financial knowledge through interactive workshops, live virtual events, and many other free resources.

A major catalyst to embarking on this project was the low rate of female investors globally, and our desire to use eToro’s influence as the world’s largest social investing platform to affect change. We are happy to say that it’s working: since Invest With Her was created at the beginning of November, the number of female Popular Investors, our platform’s investing leaders, has risen 50% and we’re just getting started! Our goal is to continue to increase the overall number of female investors on eToro as well as support them, helping to boost their financial independence, hone their investing skills, and foster inclusion and diversity.

Spread the word

So, don’t be a statistic! Join eToro’s Invest With Her community and be empowered to take your financial future in your own capable hands, on an investing platform where you are truly an equal. Connect with the Invest With Her community here, and catch our webinars here. And make sure to spread the word to other women you care about because friends don’t let friends fall prey to outdated gender myths.

 

Copy trading does not amount to investment advice. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.