They are still very rare. According to the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the number of active investors in France – that is to say having carried out at least one transaction on the financial markets – was only 1.7 million in 2024, or only around 3% of the adult population. What is stopping them from taking the plunge? The fear of seeing their savings disappear: as a recent BlackRock study points out, 44% of French people prefer to avoid any risk of loss when considering an investment in the stock market.
An apprehension which owes a lot to a lack of financial education. According to a survey last May, 79% of French people consider the Loto less risky than the Stock Market, even though they only have one chance in 139 million of winning the jackpot. While in reality, in the long term, shares are indeed the most profitable investment, as shown each year by the ranking of the Real Estate and Land Savings Institute (IEIF).
Discover the stock market without taking any risk
To take the plunge, but gently, there is a solution: discover the stock market without taking any risk. This is what the Skade application offers, thanks to which you can create portfolios of stocks, ETFs (trackers, index funds) and cryptos for free with fictitious money. A real stock market video game that can help you get started, or become a better investor, for three reasons.
First, for beginners in particular, starting with play money is a good introduction. It is indeed difficult to know in advance if investing in the stock market is right for you, in other words if the level of risk taken suits you. Gold, “using fictitious money allows you to assess the risks, to see what you are capable of losing”explains Louis de Passemar, co-founder of Skade. For beginners, very simple: invest for example 1,000 euros in a very volatile asset, like Ethereum or Dogecoin (two cryptocurrencies), and see how your position can move very quickly from one day to the next. If you don’t think you can handle this roller coaster, see if less volatile assets, like stock index ETFs (CAC 40, S&P 500), are better for you.
Then, nothing beats learning by example. On Skade, users (12,000 at present) can make their portfolio appear “public”, and they are even classified according to their performance. You can therefore take inspiration from the best “players” to compose your own basket, and ask them about their strategies, like on a forum. “We can thus confront what others are doing, discover performing stocks or ETFs that we would not have thought of, and see how the best users react in the event of a crash, such as following Donald Trump’s announcements on customs duties”explains Louis de Passemar.
Finally, to improve the financial education of its members, the application – whose interface is similar to that of Facebook or
The editorial’s fictitious portfolio
At Capital, even if it means being able to take risks without really taking any, we have launched a “value” oriented portfolio, in other words which focuses on stocks currently discounted on the stock market, in the hope of cashing in a significant capital gain when they rebound. To do this, we bet on an LVMH share (currently moving around 600 euros, far from its records close to 900 euros), a Pernod Ricard share (whose price has been falling continuously since its 2023 high), or even a Salesforce share, an American software company so the price is falling by 20% this year, despite great growth potential thanks to AI.
