10 Most Searched Financial Topics in 2019, according to Investopedia

Each year, Investopedia’s data science team looks at historical data to identify which topics had the biggest influx of visitors over the past 12 months.

Their analysis showed that this year, searches for everything from data breaches to economic theories to presidential debates to, yes, celebrities influenced the top terms.

This is usually an interesting look at where people are curious or focusing their attention.

10. ESG. Which stands for environmental, social, and governance. Investors have come to use this as a screen on deciding which companies or mutual funds to invest in.

9. Inverted Yield Curve. Earlier this year when the yields of the 10 year Treasury note and the 3 month Treasury bill inverted, meaning the demand for short term bonds spiked, investors looked up this term millions of times.

8. Karl Marx. Yep, the godfather of socialism. Socialism has become the hot topic in the U.S. election primaries as well as in Latin America and Europe. Marx’s writing of Das Kapital in 1867 probably had nothing to do with Medicare for All, but you get the idea.

7. Jay-Z. Actual name Shawn Carter, and his famous quote of “I’m not a businessman, I’m a Business, Man”. Jay-Z owns the record label Roc Nation, which is now also a sports agency. In 2019 he helped produce the half time show at the Super Bowl. He also owns venture capital firm Marcy Venture Partners.

6. Exempt Employee. This term searched mainly due to California Assembly Bill 5 which could require gig type jobs (think Uber, Lyft and others) to treat their employees as non-exempt instead of exempt. Which means they would qualify for overtime and minimum wage pay.

5. Negative Bond Yields. At present there is more than $17 trillion in negative yielding debt globally, with about 30% of all investment grade securities now bearing sub-zero yields. According to Investopedia.

4. Conventional mortgage. A conventional mortgage is any type of homebuyer’s loan that is not secured or offered by the government. As rates decreased in 2019, the 30 year fixed rate mortgage was red hot as borrowers locked in those low interest rates.

3. FIRE. Financially Independent, Retire Early. This movement surged in 2019 as a large number of books and videos came out telling people how to accomplish retiring by age 35 without a 9 to 5 job. Investopedia noted, possible for some but not likely for most.

2. Dark Web. With the many high profile security breaches that have happened it’s no wonder people want to find out where their data could possibly be. Well, it’s probably the Sullivan Dark Web where it can be bought or sold.

Negative Interest Rate. In 2019 Central Banks lowered interest rates to stimulate their countries’ economies due to trade wars and cyclical slowdowns. Japan, Switzerland and Sweden were among the countries that instituted negative interest rates.

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