Social influencers are using TikTok to spread their views on investment. Photo / file
Social influencers are using TikTok to spread their views on investment. Photo / file
When Taylor Price released a video called "How to invest at 14", more than 124,000 people tuned it. The 20-year-old runs an account on social media app TikTok which has a million followers.
Her videos target young novice investors, with titles such as "How to invest with no prior knowledge". Sometimes companies pay her to promote certain stocks, shown by the hashtag #ad. Since August, she has earned a six figure sum from her work, which includes influencing and running workshops.
Often dressed in a pink sweatshirt or sporting a bucket hat, Price does not look like your average investment guru.
"I started investing around the age of 17. When I started talking about finance on TikTok, the videos went viral so I knew people wanted to know about these things," she said.
"I like to call it financial activism. I'm challenging the status quo and having honest conversations about money."
Some of the investments she covers are high-risk, including cryptocurrencies, mining stocks, venture capital and start-ups via angel investing. She has also been paid to promote The Trading Game, a simulator for risky foreign exchange trading and crypto investing. In the video she said: "I have never seen anything like this in my life...I give this a five out of five".
In others she reminds investors of the downsides of stock markets, such as losing money and incurring taxes on profits.
Price, who is from New York, is not qualified to provide financial advice. She has a Bachelor's degree in finance and has worked in the industry since then. "I don't engage in advising others on investments for compensation. My financial coaching across my social networks, which is 100pc free, doesn't warrant any sort of registration or licensing requirements," she said.
She added that there was a disclaimer in her TikTok bio that she did not provide financial advice. "I talk about cash flow, spending, debt management and general financial behaviours, too."
Taylor Price has one million followers on TikTok. Photo @pricelesstay
Poku Banks, also 20, has around 225,000 followers on TikTok. His videos look more generally at personal finance issues, such as credit cards and university fees. Banks is currently studying finance, accounting and management at Nottingham University.
He has more than £10,000 ($19,040) invested in exchange-traded funds, stocks and some cryptocurrencies and earns four figures per month from his social media videos.
"I'm giving financial guidance, not advice. It's just sharing my experiences," Mr Banks said. In a number of videos he provides warnings, telling viewers not to invest money they cannot afford to lose, to do their own research and that stock markets go up as well as down.
"I think there should be some sort of regulation. Anyone can go on the internet and make a video. I study finance so I have a basic understanding already," he added. "I'm not inventing anything new or promoting scams: I take concepts from credible sources, like Martin Lewis and Warren Buffett, and share that information with my followers."
However, he talked about relatively risky investments such as peer-to-peer lending and commodities in a video captioned "4 Safe and Secure Ways to Grow Your Money" and discussed signing up to cryptocurrency exchange.
He also said in a video that trading in foreign currencies could be a way for investors to protect their finances in times of recession, despite estimates suggesting that between 70 and 90pc of people lose money when doing so.
"I don't see anything wrong with showing new opportunities to people. They are grateful for it – they love it – I am careful about what I talk about," Banks said.
"I only promote well-respected crypto exchanges and don't do any scams. I create my videos so people can see it and think 'I need to look into this more'. I wasn't directing people to invest in forex – I was just showing them what was out there."
The work of influencers such as these has inspired a new generation of savers and investors. However experts are alarmed that they are getting their financial information from people who are not qualified to give professional advice.
They are also concerned that young social media users encouraging each other to pile into certain shares could cause stock market volatility, distorting prices.
The share price of gaming firm GameStop jumped fourfold earlier this week after a thread on online forum Reddit telling users to buy it went viral. It has since dropped.
TikTok blocks content that promotes Ponzi, multi-level marketing, or pyramid schemes. Videos endorsing investments with promise of high returns, fixed betting, or any other types of scams are also banned.
