While the market rebounded quickly after the sell-off, there is a case to be made that the impact of the last six months will have left some psychological scars on the next generation of investors.
This is not to say that this crisis is anymore more severe than previous crashes, if anything the quick recovery has avoided the bear market that usually succeeds an economic collapse.
This means from an investing standpoint there is plenty to be optimistic about, yet caution over risk, the hit to employment and general uncertainty about the future may mean that savings and investment take a back seat for ‘generation-Covid’.
Trustnet speaks to three industry experts who assess the landscape for the new wave of investor.
“For some young people, Covid has been a nightmare” – Rob Morgan, Charles Stanley Direct
“I would say it very much depends on the person and their own personal Covid experience,” said Rob Morgan (pictured), pensions and investment analyst at Charles Stanley Direct. “Clearly, for some young people it has been a nightmare, potentially involving job loss or at least job insecurity.”
While experiences of young people vary, the effect of the experience on the collective appetite for risk is important to note. 
“Covid has acted as a reminder that we are all, to some extent, vulnerable, both collectively and as individuals – and that could lead to greater risk aversion.”
That said, the experience of those whose expenditure fell drastically yet income remained the same will likely have been drawn to investing for the first time.
“Some will have had more time to consider how to make their additional disposable income work harder for them,” said Morgan. “These ‘risk takers’ may have been reinforced by a positive experience of the significant market rally that’s taken place.”
Morgan said the swift recovery, as opposed to a long, drawn-out bear market has lessened the psychological impact.
“Ultimately, I think it depends on personality and how prepared an individual is to take risk, but their experience of Covid, bad or not so bad, may exacerbate these traits or alter perceptions,” he added.
“Savings and investments will be the last thing on many people’s minds” – Ryan Hughes, AJ Bell
Ryan Hughes, AJ Bell’s head of active portfolios, agrees that psychological scars are the result of long drawn out bear markets, which can not be said for Covid and the last six months.
“Markets have been very unusual in recovering very quickly and investors with exposure to US equities and technology shares will be sitting on gains this year rather than large losses,” he said.
Hughes (pictured) believes that the performance of technology companies, which have been a mainstay of young people’s lives will only increase the next generations appetite for investing. 
“Whereas the older investor grew up in a world of oil stocks and banks, the younger investors are surrounded by ESG [environmental, social & governance] and technology,” he said. “And this can have a major impact on an investor’s outlook as we see serious changes in how the world operates.”
While the acceleration of certain trends during this period can entice those into the investment landscape, large swathes could still be cautious given the hit to the job market.
He continued: “The scale of the hit on the employment market mean that savings and investments will be the last thing on many peoples’ minds as they sadly struggle to find attractive long-term, well-paid employment.
“Sadly, this could well be the lasting legacy on the younger generation that takes many years to recover from.”
“Short-term equity investment is only ever gambling, it’s not investing” – Andy Merricks, independent fund strategist
Andy Merricks (pictured), independent fund strategist and manager of the 8AM Focussed fund, sees no reason why this market upheaval should have a greater impact than the effects of previous crashes.
“The ones that may be affected more are those who have not experienced equities going down before, and this may have come as a shock,” he said. “We had a virtually unbroken run from 2009 to this year, which led to the belief that all you needed to do was stick your money in an S&P 500 tracker and your retirement would be sorted in a decade or so.”
He outlined that when investing in a passive fund, the investor makes an active decision to buy everything.
“When everything goes up year-on-year, it becomes a cheap way of making money,” said Merricks. “But when everything goes down rapidly it becomes a cheap way of losing it again.”
With low interest rates expected to be in place for the foreseeable future, the options for investors remain somewhat limited.
“TINA – ‘there is no alternative’ – suggests that equities will once again be the best place to invest in anything other than for the short term,” he said. “Short-term equity investment is only ever gambling. It’s not investing.” 
Like Hughes, Merricks said the new wave of investor will have a more astute eye when spotting the equity trends of the future.
“The younger generation will understand it better than old gits like me as I can’t see anything other than the various forms of tech outperforming,” he said.
“I don’t mean the FAANGs [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet] necessarily, and certainly not the likes of Facebook or even Netflix which will probably be overtaken by rivals we don’t even know about yet.
“But sectors such as cyber security and cloud seem to have many years of growth and potential ahead of them.”