One of the biggest challenges faced by the financial education industry is misinformation. That’s according to Zachary Trebbi and Joshua Kiley, two Tik Tok stars and financial entrepreneurs who are making it their business to fight the large quantity of misconstrued, or simply false, advice available to home investors online.
Trebbi and Kiley are the co-founders of CEOWatchlist, a financial education platform born from the success of their investment advice videos on Tik Tok. Their program leverages their long-held financial expertise – a Master’s degree and a lifetime of family involvement in the stock market for Trebbi. But, as their videos became viral sensations, it quickly became clear to the pair that not everyone sharing financial education online had the same qualifications.
Zachary Trebbi says, “Our business thrives due to social media, but it has been a blessing and a curse for us.” He adds, “It is so easy for people to put out false information online and make it look believable. Those people without a lot of knowledge on the subject can be easily fooled and can lose a lot of money if they’re not careful.”
Trebbi and Kiley’s solution has been to leverage the popularity of their Tik Tok videos and set up a proper education program that will, in their words, “bring financial literacy to the masses.” The duo believes that it is never too late to start the journey to becoming a more knowledgeable investor. Particularly now, during the pandemic, when more and more people are flocking to the stock market as a way to shore up finances, make money, or secure futures.
They say, “If the school system won’t implement financial literacy as a subject then we will take it into our own hands to bring our knowledge of investing to the world.” Zachary Trebbi adds, “No matter the socio-economic background of a person, everyone should have the opportunity to learn about finance and investing through a proper education.”
Alongside their education program, the duo continues to share quality investment content via videos. Their company, CEOWatchlist, was set up to disseminate investment advice via social media. Initially, Trebbi and Kiley analyzed the stock trades of prominent business CEOs and used the data to inform their advice on what stock looked like a good investment opportunity.
“The name CEOWatchlist came to be thanks to the original idea of copying and following the trades of CEOs, but the actual business model came to be because of a need for proper education in a social media-filled world full of so much misinformation.” Trebbi continues, “Once people are part of our community, we can dive deeper into teaching them the fundamentals and technicals of the stock market and investing,” says Zachary Trebbi.
For Trebbi and Kiley, the way to combat the slew of misinformation available to home investors online is through reliable, quality financial education. They see it as their responsibility to share their knowledge to help the average Jane or Joe make the right decisions and see through the scams and fake news that percolate through social media channels. As they say, “Knowledge is one of the most valuable assets in the world.”
