Personal Finance

What do your stock picks say about you?

You are what you buy?
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You are what you buy?

You are what you eat, as the common saying goes.

But the stocks you own may reveal a lot more about you than your diet does. Age, income, and politics can be inferred in a big way just by the tickers in your portfolio.

It probably won't surprise you that the average Tesla owner is very different than the average Philip Morris owner. But did you know that the typical owner of Target stock is nearly a decade older than one who owns shares of Amazon? (And 8 years older than the average Target customer.)

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That's according to data provided by SigFig, based on the $350 billion in assets in more than 2.5 million portfolios that the company tracks. The online investment manager provided information on the average ownership profiles for more than 100 major company stocks. (The full interactive is below.)

Some correlations reinforced stereotypes—blue state residents love tech stocks while those in red states prefer oil and gas—but there were some surprises too. Here's what your stock portfolio may reveal.

Age
  • It's simple: Young people like younger companies, and older people like older companies.
  • Most of the blue chips from the Dow have an older ownership.
  • Investors under 40 are 40 percent more likely to own Tesla, and 30 percent less likely to own Intel and General Electric.
  • Middle age investors (between 40 and 60) are 20 percent more likely to own older tech companies like Oracle and Cisco.
  • Older investors (above 60) are 20 percent less likely to own a young company like Google, but twice as likely to own ancient brands like Merck and Philip Morris.
Wealth
  • The smallest investors (with under $50,000 in accounts) are nearly three times as likely to own marijuana-related stocks (HEMP, MJNA, PHOT, ERBB)...
  • ...But they are more than 60 percent less likely to own big pharma stocks like Merck, Bristol Meyers, and AbbVie.
  • The wealthiest 10 percent of investors are much more likely to own high-end international brands like LVMH, SAP, and Bayer—even if these tickers aren't directly available on U.S. exchanges.
Politics
  • At this point, is it any surprise that Tesla is the "blue-est" stock of all?
  • Blue state residents also love tech names like Apple, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Microsoft.
  • Don't be surprised to see that red state stock owners tend to prefer Walmart and big energy names like Southern, Duke, Kinder Morgan, ConocoPhillips, and Phillips 66.
  • And not to belabor the point, but you can keep listing red state energy stocks: also Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Apache.

Who are you?
So, can you find your favorite stocks on the list? Are you a stereotypical owner, or do you buck the trend?


Data used is aggregated and anonymized from investors who sync and track their portfolios with SigFig.

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