Damian McVeigh with his daughter at home during the coronavirus pandemic, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, June 16 2020. Picture: HANDOUT VIA REUTERS/RACHAEL McVEIGHAt 7am on Friday morning, Dean d’Arco, a phone shop manager from Belfast, Northern Ireland, logged on for his last day as a round-the-clock armchair stock market trader.
With his friend Damian McVeigh, the pair put in 70-plus hours a week on trading apps, staking a substantial part of their savings in the process, despite neither having prior experience in financial markets. “I only play with savings I can afford to lose and I’ve made a good return and have no regrets,” McVeigh, who is a quantity-surveyor by trade, said.
“We began to see record levels of activity when the coronavirus pandemic started,” said Johanna Kull, an economist for Swedish trading app Avanza. “Stock market gains have mostly been led by government and central bank stimulus, but increased retail trading activity has pushed up prices and caused volatility in specific small cap stocks.”
Two weeks ago, a flurry of activity was seen in bankrupt or soon-to-be-bankrupt stocks with Hertz, Chesapeake, Whiting and JC Penney rising 300% to 500% before pulling back a bit, leaving seasoned traders scratching their heads.