The interest of Germans in the share has increased significantly in the past year.
This was already evident in the topics of discussion, but it is seldom clear in the figures that Deutsche Bank has published on savings behavior.
For years, citizens had accumulated money in interest-free checking accounts, ignoring the good returns of the stock market as best they could.
That only changed when more and more accounts had a minus sign in front of the interest rate.
Finally, some might say.
Finally they got it.
But something more critical minds should be queasy.
Stocks produced above-average returns for about nine years before thousands of private investors who had never dealt with the topic before bought mutual funds, entered into mutual fund savings plans or, even worse, pounced on individual stocks.
Because when this happens after around nine years of a bull market, experience has shown that it smells very much like what is so unfairly and disrespectfully referred to as a housewife boom or housewife rally, although it is often the men who make ill-considered investment decisions, so it would probably be more appropriate to speak of a servants' rally or perhaps a garbage truck rally, even if that is no less disrespectful.
The phenomenon better described as the uninformed rally is fatal.
It takes a long time for people to become aware of the earnings opportunities, so they jump on board at the last moment.
They buy very expensively, suffer surprisingly heavy losses, often jump out again at the worst moment and only return when they have again become aware of the high earnings opportunities.
Unfortunately, the phenomenon cannot die out.
Because the reason lies in the lack of information, which does not decrease as a result of the experiences made.
Excessive valuations, restrictive monetary policy and other warning signs are another indication for informed investors that they may need to be more cautious.