5 TikTok creators explaining the stock market to a new generation of investors
- The TikTok hashtag "#investing" has amassed over 1 billion views on the mobile video app as more and more young people are turning to the platform to learn about the stock market.
- Several creators are using TikTok to explain stock market concepts in fun and interesting ways with short, snappy videos and useful graphics.
- Here are five upcoming "StockTok" creators educating users on stock picking, market trends and more technical concepts like options.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
With the rise of commission-free trading and app-based platforms like Robinhood, it is easier than ever to invest in the stock market, and the younger generations are piling in. Catering to the rise of the Gen Z and millennial traders, the short-form video app TikTok is home to a sizable library of investing advice. The hashtag #investing has received over 1 billion views, while #Stocktok has drawn in over 254 million views.
While the platform has received criticism for hosting risky or incorrect market advice, a handful of creators are attempting to stand out with educational, interesting and relatable content.
Here are five "StockTok" creators producing stock market and trading content on TikTok.
Robert Ross, @tik.stocks, 227,600 followers
Robert Ross is senior equity analyst for an investment research company. He runs @tik.stocks where he uploads videos analyzing his positions in stocks like Palantir, Alibaba, and Snowflake, while also giving his thoughts on market trends to his 227,600 followers.
As a TikTok creator with almost a decade of financial analysis experience, he said he wants to educate younger people on how to build long-term investing habits.
"I get messages from kids all the time who are 16, 17 years old asking how do I set up a custodial account? They want to be able to buy stocks…They want to buy super speculative stuff, penny stocks, they want to day trade," Ross told Business Insider.
"What I try to do is bring some experience to all that enthusiasm these kids have, and kind of teach them good habits at a young age...because I've had some horror stories of people losing tens of thousands of dollars that send me their screenshots," he added.
At a time when there is near limitless euphoria permeating the stock market as it notches record after record, much of it coming from retail investors, Ross believes educating younger generations could be key to protecting the market when things get frothy.
"I think if you're able to kind of teach them good habits, it's actually going to be a source of stability for markets in the long term."
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@tik.stocks/video/6904034363600538886" data-video-id="6904034363600538886" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@tik.stocks" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tik.stocks">@tik.stocks</a> <p>let's see if I should sell my Palantir (PLTR) position <a title="stocks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stocks">#stocks</a> <a title="stockmarket" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stockmarket">#stockmarket</a> <a title="invest" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/invest">#invest</a> <a title="investing" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/investing">#investing</a> <a title="stonks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stonks">#stonks</a> <a title="ddtg" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ddtg">#DDTG</a> <a title="pltr" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pltr">#PLTR</a> <a title="fintok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fintok">#fintok</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Robert Ross" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6904034373713103621">♬ original sound - Robert Ross</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Kayla Kilbride, @Robinhoodkid, 60,000 followers
Kayla Kilbride set out to learn about investing at the start of the pandemic, but was frustrated that most stock market educators, including her own father, used market jargon that seemed impenetrable to a newcomer.
"I recognized that there were probably a lot of people like myself who just couldn't follow the conversation," she told Business Insider.
After learning online, she started making TikToks to explain financial concepts in ways that people without backgrounds in finance could understand and enjoy. In one TikTok, she stands up and mimics the movement of a charging bull to explain the origins of the term "bull market".
As a relatively new investor herself, she says she only posts videos explaining concepts she truly understands, and she discloses to her 60,000 followers that she's a beginner and wants to "learn stocks together" with them.
One of her most liked TikToks is a video where she explains options trading. In the video, Kilbride uses an analogy that compares buying a makeup palette from Ulta that you suspect will go up in price the next day.
"I have a lot of men who are like, I don't even wear makeup...and I'm understanding this better than I ever have before," she said.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@robinhoodkid/video/6905851518486908165" data-video-id="6905851518486908165" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@robinhoodkid" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@robinhoodkid">@robinhoodkid</a> <p>Girls Talk Stocks: Episode 1. Reply to @thealexcruz <a title="fyp" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp">#fyp</a> <a title="stocks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stocks">#stocks</a> <a title="stockmarket" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stockmarket">#stockmarket</a> <a title="teachersoftiktok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/teachersoftiktok">#teachersoftiktok</a> <a title="calls" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/calls">#calls</a> <a title="options" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/options">#options</a> <a title="girlstalkstocks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/girlstalkstocks">#girlstalkstocks</a> <a title="trading" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/trading">#trading</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/WITHOUT-YOU-6892161420423596034">♬ WITHOUT YOU - The Kid LAROI</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Errol Coleman, @errol_coleman, 224,000 followers
Errol Coleman joined TikTok in February, seeing an opportunity to reach an audience of people who wanted to learn about the stock market online. Coleman explains technical analysis patterns, trading psychology, and individual stock picks to his 224,000 followers, with a healthy dose of memes about the life of a trader.
Coleman has been trading for over four years and admits he made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, and wants to help others avoid them.
"When I first learned, I just thought it was so confusing and it would have cut my learning curve in half if there was just someone that could just tell me like, hey, don't do this and don't do this," Coleman told Business Insider.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@errol_coleman/video/6908851743342316806" data-video-id="6908851743342316806" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@errol_coleman" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@errol_coleman">@errol_coleman</a> <p>Basically you want more than just a pattern to justify your entry</p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Errol Coleman" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6908851852293556998">♬ original sound - Errol Coleman</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Austin Hankwitz, @austinhankwitz, 434,000 followers
Austin Hankwitz works professionally as a strategic financial analyst and discusses his opinions on individual stocks, but also shares tips with his followers on how to select good companies to invest in. He tells viewers how to find investor presentations, how to look into SEC filings, and how to read a balance sheet and interpret growth metrics.
"I always, always, always tell people like, do not blindly follow anything I say. What I want to do is I want to enable you and educate you on how to do this yourself," he told Business Insider.
Hankwitz initially turned to Youtube to create stock market content, but realized he wasn't able to compete with creators who were already established on that platform. He said TikTok is more accessible for new creators, and it's algorithm enables videos from new creators to go viral.
"I'm not an editor. I don't have the software and the know-how and all these other different things to make really, really good content that competes with [Youtube creators]," he said. " But what I do have is a cell phone that I can download TikTok onto and point my camera towards my computer screen and just talk about what's on my mind."
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@austinhankwitz/video/6904440291990818054" data-video-id="6904440291990818054" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@austinhankwitz" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@austinhankwitz">@austinhankwitz</a> <p>If you plan to be a long-term investor into DoorDash, consider waiting for them to cool down - <a title="investing" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/investing">#investing</a> <a title="stocks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stocks">#stocks</a> <a title="personalfinance" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/personalfinance">#personalfinance</a> <a title="entrepreneur" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/entrepreneur">#entrepreneur</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Austin Hankwitz" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6904440201116945157">♬ original sound - Austin Hankwitz</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Collin Miciunas @mainstreetwolf, 248,400 followers
Collin Miciunas is a senior financial analyst who runs @mainstreetwolf. He creates educational videos that range from explanations of basic concepts like what a dividend is to describing advanced options strategies.
He said TikTok is a good platform to make short videos that can be both educational and humorous, but it can also be risky for new investors.
"I always put a disclaimer in the comments saying options are risky," Miciunas told Business Insider. "Basically in order to even touch options, you should have a solid financial grounding, meaning the money that you're depositing into any trading account you should consider basically lost"
He tells his 248,000 followers to always do their own research before investing.
"I'm not really giving advice. It's more of like, this is what I'm doing," he said.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@mainstreetwolf/video/6902588985231674630" data-video-id="6902588985231674630" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@mainstreetwolf" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mainstreetwolf">@mainstreetwolf</a> <p>The one investment to rule them all. Aka Tesla<a title="investing" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/investing">#investing</a> <a title="stocks" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stocks">#stocks</a> <a title="stockmarket" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stockmarket">#stockmarket</a> <a title="invest" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/invest">#invest</a> <a title="stocktok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/stocktok">#stocktok</a></p> <a target="_blank" title="♬ Killing Me Softly With His Song - Fugees" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/Killing-Me-Softly-With-His-Song-6771859436953717509">♬ Killing Me Softly With His Song - Fugees</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>