#INVESTOR BEHAVIOR
"The stock market is for older people." In the fourth quarter of 2025, the average French retail investor trading an ETF was 38 years old — ten years younger than the average share trader.
Published on September 16, 2026 · to be rechecked on March 31, 2027
The AMF dashboard tracks the average age of active retail investors using the date of birth reported with every transaction declaration, mandatory since 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2025, ETF investors averaged 38 years, share investors slightly over 48, and bond investors close to 60. The AMF puts those same averages at around 60 years for both ETFs and shares, and close to 70 for bonds, back in 2018. The decline has been continuous since then.
Do you need grey hair and an established portfolio to place a stock market order?
Not for ETFs: the average active investor there was 38 years old at the end of 2025.
In other words: age no longer separates investors from non-investors; it separates one instrument from another.
Five caveats that belong with the number
- These are averages of investors active over one quarter, not of holders, and still less of amounts invested.
- The 2018 values are given by the AMF in approximate terms ("around 60 years", "close to 70"): the exact size of the fall is not quantified.
- The declarations only cover listed instruments: no life insurance, no open-ended funds, no property funds.
- One investor is counted in several categories if they trade both shares and ETFs.
- The falling average age follows the arrival of newcomers: 780,000 people invested for the first time in 2025, after 516,000 in 2024.
Why it still matters: the profile of the French retail investor now depends less on age than on the instrument chosen.
For you
- What age would you have guessed for the average French ETF investor?
- Does an average age of active investors tell you anything about the sums involved?
Source: AMF, Dashboard of active retail investors no. 21, March 2026.
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