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Chatrooms such as the subreddit WallStreetBets have become increasingly influential potentially driving up US share prices and attracting more than 9.8 million followers worldwide. However, it is just one of a wide range of chatrooms some of which charge subscriptions and have moderators while others are free and do not have moderators checking content.

GraniteShares research shows around 1.69 million share investors in the UK who trade regularly are now members of chatrooms relying on them for ideas on stocks and ETPs to buy and sell.

Younger investors are more likely to be chatroom members with 28% of under-25s saying they are members and 17% of those aged 25 to 34. By contrast no over-55s say they are members of chatrooms.

The average chatroom member in the UK spends four-and-a-half hours a week in chatrooms although some claim to spend up to 20 hours a week discussing shares and looking for tips. By comparison the average person in the UK spends an hour and 49 minutes a day on social media. Some users of chatrooms such as WallStreetBets have claimed they're using student loans to invest.

But the research for GraniteShares, which offers UK investors a suite of ETPs including 3x short and 3x long exposures on a range of large US tech companies including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet, Google, Tesla, and Microsoft, as well as baskets or combinations of some of these stocks, found most traders are using money from their cash savings.

Its research found 55% of regular share traders are using their cash savings to fund some of their share buying while 37% are funding their trading out of their salary. Just one in 12 (8%) are using credit cards while 8% admit they have dipped into savings set aside for a big event such as a wedding. Around 5% are funding trading with benefits.

Will Rhind, Founder and CEO at GraniteShares said: "Investment chat rooms have become famous because of WallStreetBets, and the meme stock phenomenon. It is interesting to see so many chatroom users in the UK.

"The growing interest in share trading during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant more people trading more regularly. Our research shows that users find that chatrooms can be a good source of support and advice for members.

"The risk however is that people rely too much on information appearing in chatrooms and don't do their homework properly by understanding the product or stock they're buying". GraniteShares currently offers 54 exchange traded products (ETPs) listed on the London Stock Exchange. They consist of a suite of index ETPs tracking FAANG stocks and a suite of Short and Leveraged Single Stock Daily ETPs tracking some of the most popular companies in UK and U.S. markets.

Its FAANG, GAFAM and FATANG product suite, offers long, short and 3X leveraged ETFs on FAANG, GAFAM and FATANG indices and can be traded in a single ticker symbol via ordinary brokerage accounts. FAANG consists of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google while GAFAM includes Google, Apple, Facebook Amazon, and Microsoft and FATANG covers Facebook, Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Netflix, and Google.

ETPs offer a pure way to gain exposure to top tech companies in the U.S. market. Indices are equally weighted and rebalanced quarterly.