Investment strategies: men vs. women

According to a recent customer behaviour analysis by at the Frankfurt-based Robo-Advisor* Ginmon, men are, as some might expect, are greater risk-takers in their investment behaviour than women. At the same time, their decisions are significantly more emotionally driven, a finding which might seem surprising. Women tend to take investment advice from experts and Robo-Advisors into greater account in their investment decisions, preferring more risk-adverse investment opportunities and thus generating a higher overall return than men.

Women also prefer continuous forms of investment such as savings plans: 88 per cent of Ginmon's female customers have a savings plan compared to only 79 per cent of their male counterparts. Men have a greater tendency towards one-time investments or irregular payments. And male customers are the majority at Ginmon, where only 16 per cent of customers are female. This can be explained, on the one hand, by the pay gap, limiting women’s investment opportunities. On the other hand, the traditional understanding of investment decisions still being a man's business is still relatively predominant.

At least the latter has been changing: Ginmon's female clientele is growing steadily in numbers, and female investors, on average, are is six years younger than their male counterparts. In the assessment of gold as a safe investment, men and women are, by the way, largely in agreement: according to a recent survey on behalf of Statista.com, 54 per cent of female and 57 per cent of male investors agree on gold as a suitable option for risk-sensitive investors. However, the form of investment in the precious metal differs between the sexes: while men affirm their reputation as collectors and prefer gold coins or gold bars, women are more likely to invest in gold jewellery or watches.  

*: A Robo-Advisor is an intelligent, algorithm-based system providing automatic investment recommendations with the ability to invest accordingly.