When was the last time you heard an Israeli who doesn't work in finance talk about investing and saving through the stock market? In the often, intimidating realm of finance and investment in Israel, where pension funds and retirement accounts are heavily regulated and often limited to defensive tracks, one figure has emerged as a beacon of clarity and approachability – Micha Stocks (real name Micha Catran).
This charismatic YouTuber – who is originally from Haifa but now lives in New Jersey with his wife and kids – has captured the hearts and minds of a steady stream of Israelis with his unique blend of financial savvy and comic flair, and above all, by showing them that they can think like grown-ups and defy underperforming Israeli experts who insist on making the stock market look so complicated through their scaremongering patronizing approach to retail investors.
If you haven't heard of @MichaStocks then you have been missing out big time. He has singlehandedly revolutionized how many Israelis think of their approach to long-term savings- through his YouTube channel. This week he had a gathering that I attended pic.twitter.com/D6V4rUU20O
— Erez Linn ארז לין (@ErezHayom) April 5, 2024
Micha's awakening to the need for a radical shift in the way Israelis save and invest came about thanks to his being able to compare the two realities: Israel and the US.
After relocating to the US for work, he was exposed to a world where people were far more financially aware and who actively utilized various retirement products to shore up their wealth. Above all, he discovered that Americans were not told what to think by a narrow elite. In fact, he suddenly found himself with an abundance of different approaches, not just because of the scale of the US, but also because people in America get familiarized with financial products from the moment they set foot in the workplace (in part because there is no universal state-dictated pension regime in the private sector). In Israel, employees just sign a few forms and all but blindly accept their agent's suggestion of they should put their monthly contribution, or what track they set it to, and how much yield it has produced each year. The US, he realized, stood in stark contrast to the heavily regulated and defensive investing landscape in Israel, where predetermined government-backed yields and restrictions on index tracking were the norm, making long-term accumulation of wealth that much harder.
"You keep losing money by reading the financial papers in Israel," he said in a video on how it all got started. "And in the US I started talking to many experts, and then you realize that financial channels and people are everywhere, and I got hooked. Since I keep talking about it over and over again, maybe I should set up a YouTube channel," he told himself. "I launched the channel in Hebrew in April 2020, but I wanted to make it an English channel by July-August...there are a billion English speakers around the world and only 9 million Hebrew speakers," he said in one of his videos.
During the COVID pandemic in the summer of 2020, having already dabbled in trading and set up a small channel he visited Israel. Micha found himself shocked at how little finance plays a role in public discourse. "It felt like I was going backward. I was listening to the radio in my father's living room and no one was talking about the economy. The television news only briefly mentioned the stock market. I told my father, 'This is not what is really happening in the economy, why is no one talking about it, just briefly mentioning the market, nothing like my financial apps? There was nothing, and I realized that if I don't upload daily videos no one would know," he recalls saying to himself, according to one of his YouTube videos.
It was this epiphany that sparked Micha's crusade to demystify investing and empower Israelis to take control of their financial futures. His YouTube videos frequently ridicule Israeli brokers who fail to inform clients about the potential of index funds and long-term stock investment, instead corralling them into underperforming managed tracks that are not even fully invested in stocks. It was then that he scrapped his plans to continue the channel in English, and decided it would be in Hebrew only. And that was it. "Call it Zionism, call it whatever you want, I could have had more subscribers in English, but I just couldn't let it stay this way." He resolved to make sure that Israelis would no longer give big insurance and pension agencies a free hand in shaping their future, often at exorbitant fees and at worse performance than the passive investment in indices.
Ever since, he has adopted the common opening line, in Hebrew, "This is Micha from America, bringing you the stock market news in the language only we can understand," and it has become one of the hallmarks of his channel.
His recent live events in Israel were a testament to his soaring popularity. Micha, who has been living in the US for 5 years and started his YouTube channel exactly 3 years ago (April 4, 2021) from his basement, has come a long way. Now broadcasting from an upgraded basement setup with better equipment, his meteoric ascent can be attributed to his remarkable ability to break down complex concepts into easily digestible morsels. With his trademark-rimmed glasses, easygoing demeanor, and rapier wit, he has single-handedly made financial literacy accessible to the masses. To put it simply, he has become the Israeli Jim Cramer (and in my opinion, a better one).
His recent live events in Israel were a testament to his soaring popularity. Kicking off with hot dogs and beer, the atmosphere was relaxed and inviting, perfectly encapsulating Micha's down-to-earth approach. The guest lineup included AI cartoonists, seasoned investment managers, and even a die-hard Apple fan YouTuber who had the chance to meet Tim Cook during the launch of the Vision Pro headset.
But Micha is more than just an educator and entertainer; he's a staunch critic of what he sees as the unnecessary mystification of investing. His derision for those in the Hebrew press who insist on referring to the S&P 500 index as "Snoopy" (because it belittles what is perhaps the best-performing index fund long term) is just one example of his disdain for unnecessary complexity. Micha has made it his mission to demystify the world of finance, railing against the mainstream Israeli financial publications that he accuses of being overly cozy with big banks and investment firms.
For many, Micha represents a breath of fresh air in an industry often characterized by stuffiness and impenetrability. His ability to make the complex comprehensible, coupled with his great sense of humor, has endeared him to a diverse audience of investors seeking a more accessible and user-friendly approach to managing their finances.
With his growing popularity and his legions of devoted followers, he has become a driving force in democratizing financial knowledge and empowering everyday investors to take control of their financial futures.
Will Micha Stocks succeed in transforming Israel's financial landscape by making "IRAs", "earnings reports" and "IPOs" names every Israeli will be aware of? Judging from the enthusiasm among his fans at the live event in Tel Aviv in early April, it looks like he has made a promising start. The amount of energy they showed in the event I attended (there were two such events, two days in a row), the degree to which they admired him, and above all, the diverse age groups (although the vast majority were men), shows that there is a real thirst for a down-to-earth conversation about what our money is worthy, how to make sure our wealth grows, and above all – how to filter through all the nonsense.
Micha Stocks appears to have answered that call, perhaps unwittingly, when he just decided to launch his channel from scratch in some basement. If he can maintain this following and continue to producing two live sessions online every weekday as well as other explanatory videos and community events in his private Discord app, then perhaps in several years, we will be able to paraphrase the old Churchillian adage by saying: Never has one Israeli financial YouTube transformed so many people's way of thinking while also generating them so much wealth and financial security.
The author attended one of his events and follows him on YouTube. This commentary does not represent Israel Hayom.
