OP: Women more bullish than men in the early months of 2025 – buy orders accounted for as much as 92% of all orders by women
In the first few months of the year, women engaged in less back-and-forth trading in their investment portfolios compared to men. Data by OP clearly shows that in the early months of 2025, women were more consistently net buyers as investors compared to men, which may explain the better long-term returns on investment enjoyed by women. Despite this, women still invested smaller amounts than men.
As many as 92% of all investment transactions by women between January and April were buy orders. Among men, the figure was 84%. The data includes orders for mutual funds, stocks and ETFs executed through OP.
"The high ratio of buy orders among women supports the general consensus that as investors, women are less prone to back-and-forth trading in their portfolios compared to men. This is one of the reasons explaining why various studies have shown that women outperform men slightly in terms of average long-term return on investment. Women are less likely to make rash decisions in the market," says Hanna Porkka, Head of Wealth Management at OP Financial Group.
The market saw busy trading during the swings in April, boosted by President Trump's tariff measures. The volume of stock transactions executed through OP grew by 67% compared to April last year. Still, women held firm and placed relatively more buy orders compared to men.
"Women who placed buy orders for fund units, stocks or ETFs in April bought two investment options on average. Among men, this figure was rounded to three. The majority of buy orders were subscriptions for fund units, with monthly investments accounting for much of these," Porkka says.
Gender differences in sums invested
Although the number of buy orders among women was greater in comparison to men in the first months of the year, the average sums invested by women were smaller.
Between January and April, the median value of individual buy orders for stocks was 278 euros among women and 546 euros among men. The figures were similar when looking at just the month of April.
The majority of buy orders during the first months of the year were mutual fund orders, in which the median value of orders was the same among both men and women. Accordingly, the overall median value of mutual fund, stock and ETF buy orders between January and April was 50 euros among women and 54 euros among men.
"It's a positive that there is no significant difference in the average sums of buy order between genders, as this prevents the wealth gap between genders from increasing. However, we can see in our customer data that even the sums invested by parents are slightly larger for boys compared to girls. Still, it's delightful to see that according to our data, the median value of mutual fund assets held by women is around 500 euros more compared to men," Porkka says.
"When looking at the average or mean value, the situation is unfortunately reversed: on average, men have more assets invested compared to women. Men also greatly outperform women in terms of average portfolio value. This means that the gender gap in investment assets is still regrettably large," Porkka says.
Between January and April, Neste was the top stock in terms of net purchases among both women and men. The most popular mutual funds in terms of net purchases for women and men were OP-World Index and OP-Euro, respectively.
Media enquiries:
OP Financial Group Corporate Communications, tel. 010 252 8719, viestinta@op.fi
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