Americans are still avoiding stock market investments 10 years after the financial crisis wiped out $16.4tn of assets from US households. Research by Goldman Sachs showed US retail investors have $900bn less invested in stocks than in 2007. While investors are holding fewer assets in stocks, the money they do invest is increasingly going into index mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. The average investor has lost more than half their wealth since 2007, according to a recent report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Americans are still avoiding stock market investments 10 years after the financial crisis wiped out $16.4tn of assets from US households. Research by Goldman Sachs showed US retail investors have $900bn less invested in stocks than in 2007. While investors are holding fewer assets in stocks, the money they do invest is increasingly going into index mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. “Index investing is more prevalent … because active management didn’t protect you from losses during the crisis and has underperformed over the last 10 years,” said Matt Hanson, a wealth adviser at Kayne Anderson Rudnick in Los Angeles.