For Millennial Investors, a Harsh Lesson in Market Gyrations
“They’ve never seen a sell-off like this, and it’s especially scary
because they don’t know who to ask for advice — they may not have a relationship with a financial adviser they can call or text to walk them back from the cliff,” said Jason Dorsey, president of The Center for Generational Kinetics, a research firm.
Mario Tehuitzil, 27, ducked into a restroom to check his cryptocurrency
and stock holdings on Monday and felt “a punch to the gut,” then a growing “rush of anxiety and nausea.” His $33,000 stock portfolio had plummeted by more than 40 percent, to $19,000 in value, before swelling back to $24,000 on Wednesday.
And more than 80 percent of young investors — a far higher share than among older age groups — describe their investing
strategy as “conservative,” according to survey data released this summer by the Legg Mason asset management firm.
Millennials now expect an average annual return of 13.7 percent, compared to the 7.7 percent return
that baby boomers expect, according to a survey last year from the AMG asset management company.
“I still don’t think it has hit me how much I lost so quickly.”
For many millennials, the recent stock market gyrations have been a painful lesson in volatility
that is being driven by fears that inflation and interest rates could rise faster than expected.