We asked thousands of retail investors from our million-strong global community about what they’re expecting and how they’re planning to invest in the fourth quarter of 2025.
This quarter's Modern Investor Pulse reveals a compelling counter-narrative to conventional wisdom about retail investing. Far from the impulsive stereotype often portrayed, our findings expose sophisticated investors whose behaviors diverge sharply from popular assumptions—with only 5% ever purchasing meme stocks and cryptocurrency adoption following a measured trajectory that reflects strategic nuance rather than trend-chasing.
The Finimize Index tracks retail investor sentiment across our 1.1 million global community and is updated every quarter.
Historically, retail investor optimism has tended to move in the same direction as the performance of the S&P 500. However, among US respondents, that relationship began to diverge last year. Pulse data now suggests the rest of the world has caught up, with optimism moving in the opposite direction to the key US stock market index.
On the one hand, it stands to reason: an asset hitting record high after record high should (in theory, all else equal) have a lower probability of rising further in the future. Modern investors, however, have – perhaps counterintuitively – tended to vote in favor of momentum.
While private markets have been hailed as democratized access for retail investors, there's still a long way to go. 67% have encountered private markets through social media and advisor outreach, and a fifth show interest, but only 10% currently invest with another 12% planning allocations soon.
Two-thirds of those planning allocations target private equity (8%), while one-third focus on private debt (4%).
Nvidia remains the top stock choice, with 39% planning an investment, followed by Microsoft and Alphabet at 28% (when asked "Which stocks do you plan to invest in over the next 12 months?").
