Nearly nine in 10 (87%) popular finance videos analysed on TikTok made no mention of the word ‘risk’, despite more than a third (35%) referencing a financial figure within the first 10 seconds - according to new research from trading education provider STARTrading.
The analysis of 524 popular finance-related TikTok videos examined the language being used around money, trading and financial success online, including how frequently terms associated with wealth, lifestyle and ‘get rich quick’ culture appeared.
The findings come amid increased scrutiny of financial content on social media. Earlier this year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) identified 1,267 illegal financial adverts across accounts targeted as part of international action against illegal finfluencers, with the adverts reaching at least 2.3 million UK accounts1.
Previous FCA research also found that nine in 10 young people who follow social media influencers had been encouraged to change their financial behaviour2, highlighting the potential influence online creators can have on financial decisions.
STARTrading commissioned the analysis as part of its Ricky Rich campaign, which uses a fictional ‘finfluencer’ to highlight the characteristics consumers should be aware of when navigating trading and money content online.
Key findings
Of the 524 popular finance TikTok videos analysed:
- 87% (457 videos) did not mention the word ‘risk’, with just 13% (67) using the term
- 35% referenced a financial figure within the first 10 seconds
- 15% contained language associated with financial freedom and lifestyle
- 11% mentioned ‘side hustle’, making it one of the most frequently identified terms within the analysis
- 5% mentioned ‘millionaire’, with 26 out of the 27 videos with this reference relating to being or becoming a millionaire
- 3% referenced making ‘six figures’
Interestingly, the analysis also found that some of the more overt language people might traditionally associate with ‘get rich quick’ claims were rare or absent. Terms including ‘guaranteed returns’, ‘guaranteedo profits’, ‘low risk’, ‘proven strategy’, ‘secret strategy’ and ‘copy my trades’ did not appear within the sample.
Lewis Crompton, founder of STARTrading comments on online wealth content and not trusting everything we consume:
“People have access to more financial information than ever before. Between social media, search engines, and more recently AI, there is an almost endless stream of content telling us how to invest, trade, and make money. The challenge for consumers is increasingly knowing what information is credible and genuinely educational, and what should be a red flag that makes them think twice.
One of the biggest red flags for me is when somebody is selling you the lifestyle before they’ve explained the skill. If most of what you’re seeing is huge profit screenshots, holidays, and expensive watches or Lamborghinis, alluding to a life trading can supposedly provide, but with very little talks about losing trades, risk management, education or the work involved, then I’d be incredibly cautious.
Trading is a skill that takes time to learn and comes with genuine financial risk, but that reality can easily get lost among promises of financial freedom or an easy route to making money.
That doesn’t mean terms such as ‘financial freedom’ or ‘side hustle’ are inherently problematic, and we certainly shouldn’t demonise everybody who talks about money online. Social media has opened up access to some brilliant financial education. We have so much information from great creators available for free at our fingertips now that people would have struggled to access 15 or 20 years ago. The difficulty though is that good education and bad education can look almost identical in a 30-second video.
A really simple test is: does this person help me understand money better, or do they mainly make me want what they’ve got? If somebody is selling the outcome without properly explaining the work and risk involved in getting there, that should always be a reason to stop and ask more questions.”
