Record Market Highs And Bitcoin Frenzy Are Waking Up Retail Investors

After years of muted trading activity, the retail investor appears to be waking up, and bitcoin can claim partial credit. “Trading activity usually quiets down in December, but that isn’t happening because of the interest in bitcoin, the tax cuts and the markets at new highs,” Rich Repetto from Sandler O’Neill told me. Repetto is the lead Wall Street analyst covering online brokerages, exchanges and the trading industry. Shares of online brokers have been rallying, especially since the tax cuts got real at the end of November, when the Senate Budget Committee advanced the legislation. Since then, the group has outperformed the market, with Charles Schwab alone up 13 percent. Read more at CNBC.