Brokerage firms, including major players such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, are increasingly courting teenagers, rolling out investment accounts, incentives, and trading platforms in a push to capture the next generation of investors early.

The most recent entrant into the teen market is Charles Schwab, which launched a Schwab Teen Investor account in March for those between 13 to 17 years old. The account is structured as a joint brokerage account with a parent or legal guardian, and comes with no minimum deposit, no commissions on listed equity trades, and no account fees.

The new accounts come as Gen Z has shown an exploding interest in Wall Street, driven by social media influencers and finance-focused apps. A recent survey shows that 70% of teens aged 13-17 expressed a high interest in investing. Youth-focused trading platforms, such as Greenlight, also have seen major growth. Teens and kids invested $70 million in 2025, a 65% increase in trading year over year, according to Greenlight.

At Babson College, Professor of Practice Patrick Gregory has noticed the increased interest firsthand.

Gregory will be teaching Inside Wall Street: How Investors Find Winning Stocks, beginning in June. The popular one-week course for rising high school juniors and seniors—part of The Arthur M. Blank School Summer Program for High School Students—introduces students to the analytical tools and decision-making frameworks used by professional investors.

“Students will learn more than just theory,” said Gregory, also the managing director of the Stephen D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance. “They’ll get an interactive introduction into the world of investing that will keep them engaged.”

Hands-on Approach to Investing

Gregory said teens should move beyond the “meme stock” culture and speculative trading content that dominates much of social media finance discourse. Instead, students will learn how institutional investors evaluate companies, analyze financial statements, and build disciplined investment theses.

Inside Babson’s Cutler Center, students use professional-grade platforms including Bloomberg and FactSet to research public companies and test investment ideas. Working in teams, they will analyze real businesses and present stock pitches modeled after those used by hedge funds and mutual funds.

“This isn’t a ‘sit and listen’ class,” Gregory said. “Students learn how to conduct primary research and leverage resources like Bloomberg to arrive at data-driven investment decisions.”

The program also gives students direct access to investment professionals who will discuss how Wall Street actually operates, an experience Gregory said helps demystify the industry while emphasizing rigor over hype.

What students should not expect are “get-rich-quick schemes,” he added. “We focus on rigorous, institutional-grade fundamental investing rather than speculative trading tips.”

Four Investing Tips for Teens

Gregory also is the faculty director of the Babson College Fund, in which Babson students manage $8 million of the College’s endowment. He offered four suggestions for teens interested in investing, or a career in finance:

1. Read a few transcripts of company earnings calls, or study the investor relations section of a well-known brand, such as Apple or Nike, to see how those companies talk to their investors.
2. Listen to “We Study Billionaires,” a podcast that explores the frameworks used by legendary investors such as Warren Buffett and Howard Marks.
3. Start reading The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg daily and pick two or three companies in industries you find interesting to follow.
4. Read “How to Read Financial Statements,” a free, online primer on income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow.

Gregory’s class, which offers additional insights for teens interested in the stock market, is just one of Babson’s immersive pre-college experiences available this summer.

Summer at Babson, the summer program at the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership, offers online and in-person programs for high school students interested in entrepreneurship, business, leadership, and innovation. Designed around Babson’s signature Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® methodology, these programs give students hands-on experience, while exposing them to college-level coursework and professional environments.

Related Stories

Banks have had a stellar first quarter. The major U.S. banks raked in nearly $50 billion in profits in the first three months of the year, The Guardian reported.

That was largely due to Wall Street bank traders, who profited from a volatile stock exchange, Reuters showed.

But even without the extra bump from stock trading, banks are doing well when it comes to interest, the same Reuters article found. And some banks could stand to benefit even more from this one potential rule change.

Morgan Stanley thinks it could have a major impact on Citi in particular.

Upcoming changes for banks

To understand why Morgan Stanley thinks things are going to change at Citi, you need to understand some recent bank rule changes.

Banks make money by lending out money, which usually comes from depositors. But people need access to their money and the right to withdraw whenever they want.

So, banks keep a percentage of all money deposited to make sure they can cover what the average person needs.

But what happens if there is a major demand for withdrawals, as we saw during the financial crisis of 2008?

That’s where capital requirements come in. After the financial crisis, major banks like Citi were required by law to hold a higher percentage of money in order to avoid major bank failures.

For years, banks had to put aside billions of dollars. Money that couldn’t be lent out or even returned to shareholders.

Now, that’s all about to change.

Capital change requirements for major banks

Banks that are considered globally systemically important banking organizations (G-SIBs) have a higher capital buffer than community banks as they usually engage in banking activity that is far more complicated than your average market loan.

The list depends on the size of the bank and its underlying activity, according to the Federal Reserve.

Current global systemically important banks

A proposal from U.S. federal banking regulators could drastically reduce the amount that these large banks have to hold in reserve.

Changes would result in the largest U.S. banks holding an average 4.8% less. While that might seem like a small percentage number, for banks of this size, it equates to billions of dollars, according to a Federal Reserve memo.

The proposed changes were a long time coming, Robert Sarama, a financial services leader at PwC, told TheStreet.

“It’s a bit of a recognition that perhaps the pendulum swung a little too far in the higher capital requirement following the financial crisis, making it harder for banks to participate in some markets,” he said.

Citi’s upcoming relief  

Citi is a G-SIB and as such, is subject to the capital requirement rules. And the fact that it could get 4.8% of its money back to spend elsewhere is why Morgan Stanley is so optimistic about the bank.

In a research note, Morgan Stanley analysts said they expect Citi’s annualized net income to be better than expected due to the upcoming capital relief.

While Citi stated its return on average tangible common equity (ROTCE), a type of financial measure, to be close to 13% by 2028, “the fact that Citi’s near-term and medium-term targets excluding capital relief were only marginally below our expectations including capital relief actually suggest upside to our numbers if Citi can deliver,” the note said.

More bank news

In fact, Citigroup’s own projections are likely conservative and it’s likely to show improvement each year, the analysts expanded.

“We have high conviction that the proposed capital rules will be finalized later this year and expect Citi can eventually revise the medium-term targets higher, suggesting further upside to consensus,” the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.

Related: Citi just added an AI agent to your wealth management team

This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.