An interesting divergence is occuring in stock markets as they reach ever higher levels, imbibed by helicopter money and/or century low interest rates, the ownership of those stocks is changing. Aside from the near complete crowding out of the volume – most of which is now done by robo-traders by only a handful of institutions as trading algos proliferate – but who used to own stocks has changed fundamentally.
A recent poll in the United States shows that just half of Americans have money in the stock market – the lowest in nearly 20 years:.
The most recent trend is obvious, a fallout from the GFC was a significant increase in the distrust of markets, as it became apparent to almost everyone that “free markets” equates to “free bailouts for investment banks”.