Fight year of the

While Covid-19 caught the world by surprise, Australian investors quickly adjusted to find opportunities. Share investing surged, with exchange traded funds (ETFs) a winner in the race to the market. A year on from the start of the pandemic, the game has changed for both ETFs and investors.

If the pandemic itself was unprecedented, the volatility it created was predictable. This caused many industry experts to tip a replay of the GFC, with investors leaving the market en masse, selling at lows and switching to cash. And in the initial days it looked as if they might be right. Then investors did the unexpected: they started buying.

Average retail trading increased to $3.3 billion at the end of April 2020, almost doubling its pre-Covid level, which averaged $1.6 billion per day. Investors reactivated dormant accounts to trade with platforms like SelfWealth and Nabtrade,