While boomers despaired over crashing markets, Gen Z saw an opportunity to make $42k in one hour: ‘The entire stock market is on sale’

• While the stock market crash sent baby boomers into panic mode, Gen Z was grabbing the popcorn and sharing their plans to get rich. “Forget about the Sephora sale… the entire stock market is on sale right now,” one excited 24-year-old shared on TikTok. Meanwhile, a 22-year-old shared how she made $42K in less than an hour thanks to the volatile market.

The world’s stock markets tanked late last week in response to President Donald Trump’s new tariffs—and baby boomers watched in horror as their dreams of a comfortable retirement briefly went up in flames. Although their Hail Mary's were answered yesterday, with a 90-day pause on select tariffs, in Trump’s own words, “Nothing’s over yet.” 

And Gen Z is here for the ride.

In fact, TikTok was rife with young people sharing excitement over their losses and what the market volatility could mean for their long-term wealth. 

“The entire stock market is on sale right now,” the 24-year-old content creator from New York @pipercassidyphillips posted to her channel. 

“Forget about the Sephora sale, which is going on right now. The whole stock market yesterday had the biggest single day crash since 2020, which means this is a good time to buy because things are literally on sale. They are cheaper.”

“So this is just your general PSA that if you've been sitting on some money that you want to invest, this is the time—I'm doing it,” Piper Phillips said, adding that she consulted ChatGPT for financial advice before investing cash towards her retirement. 

“So I will be hitting up the Sephora sale, but I'm going to be prioritizing the stock market sale first.”

Gen Z has time on their side—and they know it

Unlike those in their 60s and 70s who are planning on retiring soon, Gen Zers can withstand the current volatility—and they know it.  

Take 24-year-old Mia McGrath for example. Despite having lofty goals to retire by 40, she shared her nonchalant approach to the market’s ups and downs.

“The market is in a bit of a downturn right now, and people are panicking,” she posted in a recent TikTok video. “People's reaction in a situation like this is to sell, sell, sell, but you have to buy low and sell high. That's just the way the stock market works.”

Although her stocks were down £5,000 (about ¢6,500) at the end of last week, the London-based account manager wasn’t worried.

“The market has a 100% recovery rate,” she added. “So yes, there have been instances where it hasn't fully recovered from a crash for 15 years, but that's why I always say that investing is for the long term. You have to have the next few decades in mind.”

Ryan King, another British financial content creator, shared on his social media channels that he’s “lost £12,959 in 2025.” 

“But I’m not worried,” he posted on @makingmoneysimple. “The money that I've lost is only lost 'on paper.' You don't lose any money until you lock in your losses and actually sell”

“I don't need this money for the long term. So I have time for the market to recover,” the 27-year-old added. “This is a good thing. I can now invest at lower prices each month—into the same funds that I was already investing into—as they are now 'on sale' and cost less.”

Even with the aim of quitting work and living off their investment portfolio decades earlier than the conventional retirement age range of 65 to 70, Gen Z still has over 20 years to wait for the market to recover. 

If anything, they reckon buying into the dip, will accelerate their financial goals and help them retire earlier.

“This is absolutely insane. This hasn't even happened since COVID,” a 21-year-old American investing influencer who goes by Elap shared on TikTok that he was “down another $1,783 in one day” and “down more than 10% in two days because of Trump's Liberation Day.”

“If you're young, this is the biggest opportunity.” In another video, he shared that stock market crashes “can make you rich”—especially if you’re under 25: “2025 stock market crashing is your biggest generational opportunity.”

Trust the process: Some Gen Zers are already seeing huge gains

Since Trump’s tariff pause sent stocks soaring, Gen Z investors have been smugly sharing their huge financial gains.

King even shared screenshots of his various Vanguard funds, which are all now back in the green.  

Elap echoed that he made over $2,000 in just 15 minutes—in comparison, most people his age would need to work for nearly three weeks to earn that. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—if you guys weren't listening to me the past week, saying 'this is the time you need to be getting into the market.' This is just proof,” he posted.

“This just goes to show how you need to stay investing long term and on downturns, you need to be putting even more money into the market, which is what I'm doing, and now I am up even more than I even lost,” he added. “Last Thursday, Friday, and this Monday, I put in tons more money than usual and now I'm reaping the rewards.”

Of course, the Gen Zers who invested more in the dip saw even bigger gains. 

One 22-year-old made nearly $42,000 in less than an hour. Two days later, Sierra Aaliyah shared that she had made another $39,000 with screenshots of her ballooning portfolio.

“The stock market right now is insane,” she added. 

“In my four years of trading, I've never seen volatility like this… Never in my four years of trading have I been able to make this much money. This is crazy.”

Although she made the bulk of her money day trading, she gave lots of advice for Gen Zers looking to build long-term wealth.  

“I personally have been buying VOO (Vanguard S&P 500), VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF), Nvidia, AMD shares since the market's been dropping,” the Gen Zer said, while adding that Robin Hood is a good app to get started on investing in shares.

"Every single time the market drops, it recovers. So whether it takes three months, six months, eight months, make sure you know in your mind, oh my gosh, if I'm down on my investment, it's going to come back up—that is long-term investing.” 

“This is not something where you put your money in, and you're like, in an hour, I made $41k. This is, you put your money in there, you sit, you let it grow over time.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com