Investment clubs are cool again, and maybe community is, too

The bets are no longer just on Wall Street — they’re in your group chats, book clubs and that awkward shuffle that happens when everyone’s trying to get out of the door at the same time at the end of class.

Community investment clubs are nothing new, but a renewed interest in decentralization and the glittering — albeit now hungover — allure of getting in at the ground level of a rocket-ship venture has created a new wave of efforts around group investing.

Individualism is out. Collectivism is in vogue.

The game (doesn’t) stop

The meme stock craze of 2021 highlighted a crucial trend — people want to invest with the conviction of a community behind them. It’s tough to assess exactly how many retail investors (aka regular people) started investing for the first time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but one Schwab study estimates that 15% of investors who were participating in the market in 2021 got started for the first time in 2020.

Outperforming the market requires differentiated thinking, often a solitary pursuit. But humans are social creatures, and money and investing can be scary.