23% of modern investors want to hold stocks but don't feel knowledgeable enough to invest in them. Another 20% say the same about derivatives. These aren't people who lack capital or interest – 73% have at least $10,000 ready to deploy. They lack confidence. 
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For an investing platform, that gap between intent and action is either your biggest churn risk or your biggest growth lever, depending on what you do with it.
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The Q4 2026 Modern Investor Pulse, based on responses from nearly 2,500 retail investors in the Finimize community, points to a user base that's engaged, well-funded, and quietly stuck on the same question your platform is built to answer: what do I do next?

Stocks are losing share to ETFs, and that's a signal

64% of modern investors plan to invest in individual stocks over the next six to twelve months, down from 68% last quarter. ETFs moved the other way, up to 62% from 60%. 
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It's a pattern the Pulse has flagged before: when uncertainty creeps in, investors don't pull back, they diversify. Cash, bonds, and money market allocations also ticked up slightly. 
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None of this reads as fear. It reads as investors managing risk actively rather than sitting it out.

They want exposure to AI, but they're rotating where

Energy and power generation topped the list of where investors expect the strongest AI-driven returns, at 45%, ahead of chipmakers (41%), robotics (33%), and cybersecurity (30%). 
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But the data also shows real-time movement: among respondents surveyed later in the collection window, energy's lead narrowed from 47% to 41%, while chipmakers rose from 40% to 43% and hyperscalers from 15% to 18%. 
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Investors are responsive to price action, not locked into a single narrative – a pattern consistent with the "buy the dip" behavior that's been rewarded for years.

Fundamentals beat the feed

Asked what actually drives their asset decisions, more than two-thirds of investors pointed to long-term growth potential, and over half cited company fundamentals and recent financials. 
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FOMO and media coverage ranked at the very bottom, with media coverage cited by just 6%. 
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Investors on your platform are telling you, unprompted, that they want tools built around research and fundamentals – not another feed optimized for attention.

They'll wait for the right IPO price

Only 10% of investors want in at an IPO's launch regardless of price. A little over a quarter would invest at launch only if the valuation looks right, and a third prefer to wait and watch the stock trade before committing capital. 
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That discipline tracks with the numbers: the majority of IPOs from 1980 to 2022 lost money over the following three years, with 37% losing more than half their value, and the average IPO investor saw roughly 6% annualized returns over three years against about 11% for the broader market.

What to do about it

Build for the confidence gap directly: contextual, in-product education at the point of decision (not a separate learning center users never visit) is what turns the 23% who want stock exposure but feel unqualified into active users. 
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Provide sector-level AI options, not just single-name exposure, since investors are clearly thinking in themes like "who powers the AI buildout" rather than just "which chipmaker." 
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And rethink your IPO access positioning: rather than just announcing Day 1 access, which only a tenth of investors actually want, educate users on IPOs well beyond launch day: how to watch, value, and enterpost-listing – that's where the demand and the better outcomes both sit.

How can we help?

This is the gap Finimize for Business exists to close: jargon-free, unbiased content and a content API built to meet retail investors exactly where their confidence runs out. 
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If closing that gap on your platform is on your roadmap, get in touch to find out more.