Online trading, few women but better than men

Women and money, a complex relationship since ancient times and the most recent data are not yet entirely comforting. In Italy, one in two women does not work, one in three women does not have a current account and the management of savings is delegated to the partner or to third parties. If, then, we go more specifically, the numbers speak for themselves: women who deal with money for work are still too few. “In my daily experience – explains Andrea Unger, the only trader to have won the World Trading Championship four times in the Futures category and founder of the Unger Academy – I notice that most of the people who approach financial projects are of gender. male. There are women in this area, but they are definitely fewer. In my Academy, for example, the ratio is one woman for every ten students “. According to a research conducted by Broker Notes, in fact, only 19% of the world’s online traders are women, with a higher concentration in Asia and the United Kingdom. Italy ranks fourth in Europe, behind England, Germany and France, with a lower than average presence but still on the rise. As Unger explains, “one of the possible reasons why the number of women who have turned to trading in the past two years is lower than that of new male traders is that women, by being more pragmatic, have avoided falling into the trap of trading. as an easy solution to financial problems. Unlike many men, women seem to have a greater awareness that trading is an activity to do when you have extra money to invest and not an alternative to work or a solution to make money quickly. “Among other things, Unger reiterates, women are potentially even better than men because they are more thoughtful and analytical. The trend in recent years, however, seems to reverse the trend and sees women growing in this sector, with skills often absent in male colleagues. In fact, to trade today, all you need is a good device and a connection to the network. Online trading is accessible to everyone even from home and this aspect has facilitated the increase in “pink quotas”, despite the fact that their number remains low compared to men. “Women traders, by their very nature, have a greater capacity in developing long-term strategies and are less instinctive than men in making decisions. In addition, they also have a greater ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time. A very useful aspect when, for example, you want to invest in different assets at the same time. There are also excellent examples such as actress Michelle Williams, world champion of Futures Trading, or ‘my’ trainee Petra Ilona Zacek, who graduated 2018 World Trading Champion with a score of + 257.9%. On that occasion, Zacek even remained in the lead throughout the competition, almost 200% off the runner-up “, he underlines. Technological developments, in fact, analyzing data from the latest edition of the StreetWise survey – a quarterly appointment curated by the trading platform E * Trade (Morgan Stanley) – show that mobile applications have had a positive effect, allowing women to deal with trading with greater conviction and frequency. “My wish – concludes Unger – given the potential they can express, is that more and more women decide to apply their skills in this activity. It is undeniable that when they do, they can also be much better than men. They just have to start channeling their potential in a sector to which up to now they have not been particularly dedicated “.