AT 25, Emma Young is part of a growing army of female investors. She is a personnel worker in the National Health Service, but says she developed an interest in the stock market through her father, who works in banking.
{2}
'My dad used to ask me to check the value of his shareholdings in the newspaper when I was growing up,' says Emma. 'I guess that gave me a basic interest and understanding of stock markets. I recently started buying shares online for myself.
'It is not a huge amount of money I invest, but it's a lot more fun watching the stock market than paying cash into a savings account.'
Emma, who lives in Woodbridge, Suffolk, with boyfriend Andrew Ford, also 25, adds that it is important to keep a close eye on investments. 'I probably check the share prices once a day, either online or via Teletext,' she says.
'I buy most of my investments to hold for the long term, but obviously if a company's share price fell dramatically, I would look to cut my losses fairly quickly.'