Gen Z Investors Accumulate Assets with Low Trading Frequency

Binance Research shows Gen Z trades less frequently than Boomers, favoring long-term accumulation and ETFs over high-leverage products and day trading.

A recent Binance Research analysis finds that Gen Z trades less frequently than other working generations. Instead of concentrating new funds into individual stocks or leveraged products, they are accumulating more positions and gradually increasing their use of ETFs. The data covers direct stocks, bStocks, and TradFi-Perps.

22% of Young Investors Have Never Sold a Stock

One of the most striking findings in the study comes from direct stock trading. Approximately 22% of Gen Z accounts have never placed a sell order. This behavior challenges the profile of the short-term speculator.

In comparison, the share of non-sellers is 19% for Gen X and just 9% for Baby Boomers, though Millennials lead the group at 30%. For bStocks, accounts that only buy execute an average of 1.63 trades per month, compared to 3.45 for the typical user. Only 0.1% of these accounts fall into the high-frequency trading category.

Purchase sizes are also telling. The largest average trade in direct stocks was in the dividend ETF SCHD at $16,567, followed by Broadcom at $12,370. Investment amounts in some of the most popular technology names were significantly smaller.

Gen Z Accumulates More Positions Than Other Generations

A broader look at capital flows confirms this trend. For bStocks, 76% of Gen Z accounts are net buyers, compared to 67% of Millennials. In direct stocks, that figure reaches 77%, while in TradFi, it stands at 60%.

While these numbers should be viewed carefully for derivatives—where net flow represents less than 1% of total turnover—the signal is much stronger for direct stocks. The net flow ratio reaches 26.5%, with an average net inflow of $1,898 per account.

Fewer Trades and Reduced Leverage Use

Trading frequency further clarifies the picture. The average Gen Z account makes 13 trades per month in TradFi, compared to 17 for Millennials, 16.5 for Gen X, and 19 for Baby Boomers. For bStocks, the average is only three trades per month.

The disparity is also evident in higher-risk instruments. In TradFi-Perps, 88.2% of Gen Z accounts have never used leveraged ETFs. For bStocks, that figure reaches 98.9%.

When young investors do use leverage, the data points primarily to short-term trading. These instruments accounted for 9.25% of Gen Z’s direct stock turnover in July but represented only 3.93% of net capital inflows. Their share in net movements decreased further to 2.65% by early August.

Why ETFs Are Becoming More Important for Gen Z

Capital is gradually shifting toward more diversified products. The share of standard ETFs in Gen Z’s stock turnover increased from 14.6% in June to 21.4% in July, reaching 25% by early August. For Millennials, this figure was only 9.5%.

This trend remains visible even as overall investment levels decline. In July, total invested capital shrank by 17.4%, but net inflows into non-leveraged ETFs fell by only 2%. In contrast, individual stocks saw a 20.4% drop, while leveraged products plunged by 28.5%.

This is where the Binance Research analysis is most compelling. The data does not suggest that Gen Z has suddenly become a conservative generation of investors. However, it does question the assumption that younger participants use financial platforms mainly for fast, high-risk trading.

Binance Research noted that the observation period is too short for definitive conclusions. Direct stock trading only reached sufficient scale in June 2026, leaving only a few months of data. If the growth in ETF share persists over a longer period, it will provide a stronger argument that young investor behavior is shifting from stock picking toward broader capital allocation.