The 20-somethings betting big on tech stocks

In her teens, Michelle Huynh, the eldest daughter of migrant parents in Australia, made a promise to her family that she would become a millionaire by the time she turned 30.

The 26-year-old describes it as “a somewhat silly promise” inspired by the sacrifices her non-English-speaking parents made to raise the family.

But she is trying to make that dream come true by investing her savings in the stock market.

“Times are so different and investing has become a necessity,” says Huynh, who works in sales for a tech firm. “It feels like our purchasing power is shrinking. This is the only way to combat that.”

This year, the technology-driven surge in stock markets has edged her closer to that goal.

With more than a third of her investments in tech stocks, by the middle of July that part of her savings had jumped this year by 50% – a rise of A$31,000 (£16,100; $21,666).

But those gains have now eased to about A$22,000 as the sector is going through what she calls a “wild moment”.

Huynh says she’s prepared for the volatility, viewing those investments as a long-term bet.

The rise in tech stocks, led by firms riding the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, has attracted large numbers of ordinary investors, many of them in their 20s and early 30s, even as some analysts warn that the fervour around AI may be overblown.

Retail investors have been caught up in the excitement, which has been fuelled by social media and marketing efforts to draw non-professionals, says Glenn Tan from advisory firm Providend.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq in the US is up by about 10% this year, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 has risen by more than 20%.

But many tech stocks have seen big swings – both up and down.

That volatility is most apparent in South Korea. Seoul’s Kospi index, which includes tech heavyweights like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, has jumped by more than 50% since January.

The rally has attracted an army of retail investors, known locally as “ants”, which has helped fuel volatile trading.

“I could maybe count with my hands the number of people who aren’t investing today,” South Korean investor U Chan Lee says. “Even stay-at-home mothers, like my mum, who has never been interested in the stock market, are now interested.”

But the Kospi has seen some dramatic moves. Since hitting a record high of more than 9,000 points in June it has plunged to around 6,500.

Trading on the benchmark index has been halted seven times this year in a bid to calm panic selling after it fell by 8%.

Those slides have raised concerns over people who have borrowed money to invest in stocks, leading to South Korean authorities taking action to curb the practice.

Lee, 30, sold many of his shares last year when the Kospi surged, concerned the market was becoming “too overheated”. Since then, he has shifted to buying stocks when they fall and selling them when they rise a few days later.

The swings reflect the hazards of investing in tech, some analysts warn.

As governments and companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into developing AI, sceptics are asking whether the technology will be profitable enough to justify such huge investments.

People often make bets on “optimistic outcomes” or “the most visible winners” that are not based on a business’s profitability, analyst Lale Akoner from investment firm eToro says.

Retail investors often view drops in shares as buying opportunities, treating each sell-off as a “test of conviction”, she says, but they need to be aware of “how painful valuation resets can be”.

Jacqueline Choi, from South Korea, says she missed out on bigger gains by not investing more ahead of the Kospi’s rally, and was forced to sell Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics shares when she needed money.

“Why didn’t I go in and buy those SK Hynix stocks or extra Samsung stocks with all of my savings?” the 28-year-old now wonders.

Earlier this month, computer chipmaker SK Hynix debuted in New York, raising $26.5bn to become the largest ever US listing by a foreign firm.

Some of Choi’s friends have used thousands of dollars of their savings to invest in stocks.

“I should really invest more, knowing that investing can earn you so much more than your everyday job,” she says.

Singaporean business student Shyan Lim is a firm believer in AI-related shares, putting about three-quarters of his savings into tech stocks.

The 24-year-old says there have been plenty of “uneasy” days when his investments plunged by as much as 10%, but he is willing to take his chances.

Overall, his bets have worked so far. In October, he invested 23,000 Singapore dollars (£13,185; $17,845) in chipmakers Intel and Micron. Those shares are now worth about 100,000 Singapore dollars.

“It feels like I’m one step closer to retirement,” Lim says. “While I’m still young I think I can take the risk. I probably won’t take such positions when I’m older.”

With more than half of his investments in tech, George Lee, who recently graduated, says he is well aware of the lack of resources and other disadvantages that ordinary traders can face.

“Investing doesn’t just come down to luck, though it does play a part,” Lee says.

“As long as the fundamentals of a company don’t change, I’m ready for the swings since I have time to let my shares run.”

But not everyone is willing to bet it all on tech.

Singaporean student Ayush Deb says the sector accounts for only about a third of his investments. The 23-year-old says even that has been difficult for him, recalling how in June his memory chip-focused investments fell by more than 10% in just one day.

The same day, people on investment forums started discussing “who got burned”.

“I’ve ridden the highs and lows of tech stocks but the sector is quite hard to read,” says Deb, who has invested since his late teens. “I try to cut out a lot of the noise in this industry and focus on making informed picks.”

Deb says he felt a sense of “FOMO” – fear of missing out – when he was unable to buy SpaceX stocks when Elon Musk’s space and AI company listed in June.

But despite surging to $225 at one point, the shares have since dropped below their $135 stock market listing price.

That’s as its potential for profitability has been questioned by some analysts.

Despite the buzz surrounding SpaceX, Singaporean investor Lim says he avoids newly listed stocks to give himself more time to study a company’s operations.

He would do the same with Anthropic and OpenAI, as the leading AI developers eye $1 trillion stock market debuts, Lim adds.

In Sydney, Michelle Huynh, who creates her own finance-related social media content, says investing can be daunting for people entering the workforce because such skills are not widely taught in schools.

She added that staying on top of the news is an “underrated skill” and has recently turned to energy and metal stocks based on what she has read, believing they will benefit from heavy investment in chip manufacturing.

“I think many young people are afraid of investing – and validly so. It can feel like gambling if you’re not aware of what’s going on.”