Young investors are engaging with the markets much earlier than their Gen X and Baby Boomer peers did when they first started out investing, this according to a quarterly study conducted by U.S. based E*TRADE Financial Corporation.

The StreetWise report, released this week, found that more than two-thirds or 68 per cent of the young investors it surveyed said they started investing at 24 years old or younger. Comparatively speaking, only 33 per cent and 31 per cent of Gen X and Boomer investors say they started at the same age.

The survey of 908 self-directed, active investors who manage at least $10,000 in an online brokerage account, was conducted in July 2019. It also found that young investors are most likely to use Instagram to learn about markets and investing – 40 per cent say they use Instagram for this purpose – followed by YouTube and Facebook at 39 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.