Friday June 18, 2021
Small investors storm the stock market
“There is even less alternative to the stock market”
More than two million Germans discovered the stock market for themselves last year – as savers via ETF, as stock investors or as gamblers with papers like Gamestop. What’s next? Erik Podzuweit, co-founder of the investment platform Scalable, believes the trend is sustainable.
2020 was an exceptional and record year for the stock exchange: 2.2 million Germans flooded the capital market, more than 12 million Germans now hold shares. But how long will this trend last? “I do believe that this newly ignited stock culture will be sustainable, because the stock market is even more alternative than in the past,” said Scalable co-founder Erik Podzuweit in the podcast “Zero Hour”.
Scalable Capital, once founded as a so-called “Robo-Advisor”, launched its own platform for trading stocks, funds and ETFs a year ago and is benefiting from the boom. The Munich-based company has 250,000 customers, employs more than 200 people in Munich, London and Berlin and oversees customer assets of more than four billion euros. In addition, with the entry of the Chinese technology group Tencent, Scalable has just become a “unicorn” – and has been valued at 1.4 billion dollars. With flat rates starting from 2.99 euros per month, Scalable wants to attract new customers with its “Neo-Broker”.
Podzuweit observes a “new generation in the capital market”. “About a third of the customers are completely new. They are mostly young people in their twenties or at least under 30 or 35 who are going to the capital market for the first time and investing in stocks or ETFs.” He sees this trend “in a form that has not been seen in the last 20 years.”
Scalable has grown, although fintech has had a difficult year in digital asset management – because the algorithm reacted procyclically in the lightning crash. The value-at-risk model showed itself to be susceptible to violent movements, which led to poor performance. “That hurt,” said Podzuweit. “If the crash hadn’t happened last year, we’d be much bigger in the segment.” But you have caught up and are now on an “all-time high”.
While ETF investments are a real trend, the much discussed Gamestop and Windeln.de capers are more of a niche topic for Podzuweit. The Scalable co-founder, who is considered one of the most important figures in the German fintech scene, considers the attention to be “exaggerated”. Only three to four percent of his customers would have traded Gamestop shares. “This in no way jeopardizes the stability of the capital market.”
Also hear in the new episode of “The Zero Hour”:
- Why Erik Podzuweit is currently on Norderney – and what the island means to him
- How the talks with the Chinese investor Tencent went
- Whether you should still go to a bank branch with your children
You can find all episodes directly at Audio Now, Apple or Spotify or via Google.
.