The Quant Generation is born between GenZ and Millennials: no mortgages or bricks, but gold, data and investment apps. The new status? Know how to read numbers
Ever heard of Quant Generation? It is the young people (GenZ and Millennials) who in Italy are no longer able to buy a house, so what? They have transformed into investors, using technology to make financial decisions based on data and mathematical models rather than instinct. Through apps and algorithms they invest with a quantitative approach. Hence the name.
Goodbye brick dream, welcome golden age: the Quant Generation
Once upon a time, buying a house was synonymous with stability and success, it meant “having made it”. Today it is increasingly difficult for a young person. According to the latest real estate analyses, in Milan it would take 147 years of average salary to buy an apartment of your own. In Rome over 120 years. And so the brick went from a symbol of emancipation to a luxury for the few. At the same time, legacies are now worth almost a fifth of Italy’s GDP, bringing the Bel Paese to the top in Europe for concentration of wealth. It is the age of “Hereditocracy”, as The Economist defined it: a world where heritage is not built, it is inherited. So what? Millennials and GenZ are finding a different path. They no longer buy houses, but invest. They don’t save in current accounts, but in investment apps and artificial intelligence algorithms. This is how the Quant Generation was born: the generation that uses numbers to build independence.
The Italy of Inheritance and the birth of the Quant Generation
Over the next few years, more than $6 trillion in inherited wealth will be transferred to advanced countries, equal to 10% of global GDP. In Italy, one inheritance in four exceeds 200 thousand euros, while the median annual income remains stable at around 26 thousand euros. An economy blocked and so young Italians have abandoned the idea of accumulating “bricks” to dedicate themselves to accumulating skills. They train online, study economics and finance on social media, follow digital courses and, above all, invest through fintech platforms that transform market analysis into a scientific and accessible exercise. The Quant Generation takes its name from quantitative traders, the professional who uses mathematical models and statistical data to make investment decisions. What was once the exclusive preserve of hedge funds and investment banks is now in the hands of smartphones. “It is the democratization of quantitative analysis,” explains Marco Casario, founder of Quantaste, an Italian fintech platform dedicated to monitoring international financial markets. “Young people no longer invest by chance, but by choice. They read the data, interpret them and build autonomous strategies. It is the birth of a generation that invests to understand, not just to earn.” The data confirms: Millennials and GenZ now represent almost a third of Italian retail investors, with a growth rate double the European average.
Young Italians are increasingly investing in physical or digital gold
In the Quant Generation portfolio, gold has displaced brick. According to State Street Global Advisors’ 2024 Gold ETF Impact Study, Millennials and GenZs have doubled their gold allocations in just over a year. Not for fashion, but for protection: gold is not inherited, it is conquered. Today, over 50% of the Quant Generation owns physical or digital gold as an integral part of their wealth strategy. Young Italians see the yellow metal not as a safe haven, but as a signal to be interpreted, a seismograph of the economic situation. Historically, in fact, every gold rush to historic highs has anticipated phases of instability. And today, here we go again. “Gold does not announce prosperity,” concludes Casario, “it announces awareness. And in times like these, understanding comes before earning. Young people have understood this: the new well-being is not possessing, but understanding”. The Quant Generation is changing paradigm.
