Page 24 - Investment Advisor - December 2021

WOMEN IN WEALTH

By Jane Wollman Rusoff

Social Media Star Kyla Scanlon Is Making

Finance Fun

Advisors can learn from this GenZer, as the 24-year old explains why

memes beat fundamentals and why monetary policy is “fascinating.”

yla Scanlon, 24, is determined
to reshape financial educa-
K tion. The innovative, enter-
taining content creator, who began
trading options at age 16, has a plat-
form in the works she describes as
“a financial playground.” It will be a
destination where people can interact
and “play with content and different
ideas,” she says.
If the platform is anything like her
amusing, instructive video skits on
social media, countless folks will be
eager to come out and play. The social
media influencer has more than 67,400
followers on Twitter and 98,100 TikTok
fans. Out of college a little over two
years, Scanlon is making waves with her
fresh approach and frank opinions on
the economy and markets in newslet- “life thesis” as: “How do we create finance experts such as Robert Shiller,
ters, blogs and videos. financial accessibility and equality for Richard Thaler, Daniel Kahneman?
In the interview, the investor, who everybody?” Yes, Kahneman is good. I sit at the inter-
at 20 had her own blog, “Scanlon on Here are highlights from our conver- section of philosophy and the markets.
Stocks,” argues that “the market is sation: So I read philosophers and then apply
driven by memes and that focusing those lessons to the market.
on fundamentals “just doesn’t make Investment Advisor: You’re both a
sense anymore.” financial person and an entertaining This past March you wrote that the
From Kentucky, she was schooled in person — a pretty rare combination. stock market is driven by memes — such
gifted classes and at Western Kentucky Kyla Scanlon: I know. Most finance peo- as SPACs and NFTs — rather than fun-
University majored in finance, econom- ple are relatively boring, it seems. damentals. Do you still feel that way?
ics and data analytics. She graduated Yes, even more so than when I wrote
with a bachelor’s degree in 2019. With regard to finance and investing, that piece. You can see it now with
Hired right away by Capital Group/ how have you developed the insight Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin and even
American Funds, she relocated to the you provide? some stocks, like what’s happening with
firm’s Los Angeles headquarters but left I read a lot of different people, a lot of Tesla. It just doesn’t make sense any-
a year and nine months later to start newsletters, I pay very close attention to more [to focus on fundamentals], and
building her own digital financial educa- smart people and listen to what they’re a lot of people would probably agree
tion platform. saying. That’s how I learn. with me.
The inventive GenZer, whose pod-
cast is called “Let’s Appreciate” (as You’re into behavioral analysis, so You were trading options at age
in capital appreciation), sums up her you write. Do you read any behavioral 16 when you were in high school in

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