DALLAS, Texas —  Many Americans, especially young ones, may be taking their $14,00 check from the government straight to the stock market, if a recent survey is right.

The online survey by Deutsche Bank found that half of respondents between age 25 and 34 plan to spend at least half of their stimulus payment on the stock market with most 18 to 24-year-olds reporting intentions to invest 40% of their stimulus check and 35 to 54-year-olds planning on 37%.

The numbers are, of course, just one survey’s results, but some industry experts aren’t surprised by those findings.

“More and more people are interested and it’s got the ear of a lot of young people,” said Gust Kepler, CEO of Dallas-based BlackBox Stocks.

BlackBox is a sock trading website that provides subscribers with a kind of road map through the market; pointing them toward the hot stocks and options trading at any given day. The site also provides a lot of education for long-time and newer traders alike.

“So, we have thousands of members interacting daily--exchanging information about the various options and stock alerts that they see,” said Kepler.

He says it’s clear there’s an appetite for trading as his company has grown 300% over last year, all during a pandemic and economic downturn.

Kepler said the interest has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic, but things really intensified after the recent Game Stop situation that turned the trading world on its head. Over a period of just a few days, young traders fueled by stock trading on social media, combated an attempt by seasoned investors to short-sell the game retailer’s stock, instead resulting in the stock posting massive gains in just a matter of hours.

For a lot of young traders, like Texas Woman’s University student Jehona Ahmeti, it was their first attempt at speculative day trading, and it ended up being a profitable attempt at that.

“I did double, more than double what I had. Triple actually,” said Ahmeti, who just made her first investments in the market last March.

Kepler warns those young traders with stimulus money to spend to be cautious as they enter the markets, possibly, for the first time. While a lot of people made money in the GameStop situation, others lost significant amounts by joining in too late or not completely understanding what they were doing as they tried to ride the wave.

“Trading, especially in volatile stocks, is like playing musical chairs and it’s very easy to get left without a seat,” said Kepler.

That’s why he advises anyone who is getting involved to take the time to research the markets and learn how to invest and trade properly.