---
title: "Tracking the Traders"
description: "In recent months, the U.S. stock market has seen record highs coupled with dramatic sell-offs, its volatility fueled by the sub-prime mortgage and credit crisis, the weak dollar, and oil prices heading toward $100 per barrel. At the same time, the public has grown increasingly worried about the state of the U.S. economy. Yet these […]"
date: "2007-11-19"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2007/11/19/tracking-the-traders-2/"
categories:
  - "Economic Conditions"
  - "Personal Finances"
---

# Tracking the Traders

In recent months, the U.S. stock market has seen record highs coupled with dramatic sell-offs, its volatility fueled by the sub-prime mortgage and credit crisis, the weak dollar, and oil prices heading toward $100 per barrel. At the same time, the public has grown increasingly worried about the state of the U.S. economy.

Yet these fluctuations have a direct impact on only a limited number of Americans. Nearly half of adults nationwide (46%) say they don't have any money in the stock market. And among the half who say they do, the vast majority (43% of Americans overall) say they have some long-term investments like retirement accounts but don't trade stocks regularly. Only 7% of Americans say they trade stocks and other funds pretty regularly.