Source of financial news, sense of community and lessons from experts: what are the peculiarities of social trading

Let’s see how it works, why it is so popular, and what peculiarities this strategy has.

How does it work

Social trading platforms usually include three additional tools: a chat for discussions, copy widgets for sharing and mirroring deals and methods, and a leaderboard based on popularity, success rate, and followers. So, if the user is an expert, they will be on the leaderboard, have a badge with an expert mark, and share their actions through these widgets. Other users will find experts on the leaderboard and will copy their actions. But, of course, the flow is not strict. Experts can also copy other experts’ deals, or activities made by regular users, if they look suitable and promising. Regular or novice users can share their deals to discuss the ideas with the community and correct plans and strategies if they decide it's needed. So, mirroring trading allows users to stay updated and check with the community if they do everything right or need to reconfigure their strategy.

Pro and contra

It doesn’t prevent users from losses

Due to social trading, users adopt different strategies created by other people. This helps users save time but should be customized anyway because different traders have different needs, goals, and financial opportunities. 

It gives traders much helpful information

Many traders prefer social trading platforms because they gain access to market updates. Such information comes not from nowhere but from particular people who prove their insights with concrete actions shared via the copy widget. So, chats with copy tools become social media for traders, where communities are forming, and users engage deeper and can trust each other more. Still, compared to social media, they stay more protected because they can communicate only in public chats and cannot provide any sensitive or private information that can be used for fraud. 

Not only news and updates but theory

Social trading tools can help users save time and learn a theory directly from industry experts. Instead of spending hours trying to understand the material, you could gain experience by doing it and putting it into practice by asking questions and seeing real strategies applied for real deals. Also, the platform can provide audio and video streams in such trading chats. Users get into online events like workshops about trading while surfing your platform and making deals.

High-risk techniques and straightforwardness

Firstly, novices can copy high-risk strategies without realizing it. It is an obvious risk, but newbies should remember that trading generally applies to risk, and neither somebody’s strategies nor their own can be one hundred per cent successful; there are no guarantees in trading. So, it’s better to start mirroring straightforward strategies and don’t hesitate to ask some advice and questions in a chat.

Numbers

Copy trading is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored, so metrics and numbers of users of this tool have been published regularly by particular social trading platforms and by traders in general. 

According to the Insight Partners report, the social trading industry is growing 7.8% annually, and it will achieve a market volume of $3.77 billion by 2028.

According to Market Forecast, the global social trading market will reach over $12 billion in 2028, growing at a CAGR of 64.7% during the forecast period.

On average, traders who profit from copy trading features follow more than seven trading experts. The top user of copy trading tools follows 27 expert traders, with total profits of over 140K USD.

Trends

So, it’s pretty predictable that Gen Zers who are interested in trading and crypto trading are permanent users of social and copy trading tools. According to different reports of significant copy-trading platforms, the age group of users are 50-55% of all active consumers of the feature (curious is that the second big group of users who consume copy-trading more often is people older than 55 because they seek trading advice, and copy tools and social chats are convenient place to reach them). 

The Fidelity Investments Investor Insights Study, conducted in 2022, showed that more than 55% of Gen Zers and Millennials turned to social media influencers for investment advice. A 2021 survey conducted by the Fool revealed that more than 90% of Gen Zers named social media a main source of investing and financial information.

These tendencies were applied by spreading social aspects of all digital services Gen Zers and other youngsters use. Social tools have become a required part of using any service and platform, and if a young person trades, they want to have a strong connection with other users. For trading and finances, this trend is raised due to investment, trading, and crypto threads on Reddit and other similar platforms, where communities engage in conversations on trading activities.

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Watchers provides easily integrated tools for crypto- and stock social trading, such as public chats, copy-and-share widgets, and audio streams. Please contact us through the website's form to get more information or start a free trial.