A Study of Stock Market Awareness and Participation Among College Students

Stock market is known as a pulse of economy which reflects the economic conditions of a country. Investors play the major role in the stock market. Their education and awareness, hold the key to reviving and sustaining their interests in the securities market. Stock market awareness comes under the wider concept of financial literacy. This study is an attempt to assess the awareness of youth about various aspects of stock market including concepts, products, processes, institutions etc. The results of the study reveal that the sample youth possess low to medium level of stock market knowledge, and the awareness level is not significantly different among different sample groups based on the discipline they are studying. Young generation these days are more creative and techno-savvy than the older generation socially and financially. One question may arise on whether this generation is concerned about and aware of their financial status in the future and investment. Behavioural Finance is an emerging field that combines the understanding of behavioural and cognitive psychology with financial decision-making process. The traditional economic theory tells us about efficient markets and people making rational decisions to maximize profits. However, the emerging changes tell us that market is not efficient, especially in the short run, and people do not make rational decisions to maximize profits. This research seeks to find the awareness towards investment among young generation. This study used primary data by questionnaire. The objective of this is to find out the relationship awareness and the fore-mentioned independent variables. The study tells us whether the youth are aware about the stock market what is their perspective etc. The result reveals that the key driven on investment among young generation is mainly based on independent variables selected. Finally, the limitations and recommendations are included to help further researchers to have a better finding of the result.