Well, there haven't been real big, bad crashes in the living memory. And anyway, this isn't what investors are worried about - they are worried about protracted bear markets.
I was a freshman in college the week that crash happened. Called my dad and asked him how he was faring and he offhandedly mentioned losing $250k in 3 days. He wasn't concerned because he was 10+ years from retirement and confident he'd make it all back with a bit of work, but it was still eye opening and it definitely affected how I chose to invest my own money as I got older. I'm much more conservative and hands-off with it than he ever was. I'm still doing well compared to my peers, but I'm behind where thinks I should be.
To state the obvious, 2008 was 15 years ago. So someone who was a senior in high school at 18 in 2008, is over 30 today.
So it is true that there's a generation that includes everyone in their 20s and those in their early 30s that have never experienced a significant market crash.
This is a pretty myopic definition of “experienced.” I was in middle and high school through the GFC, and watched my friends and family lose their jobs and worry about their livelihoods.
The topic is stock market investment expectations which is not the same. The market can be going up even as unemployment rages.
The vast majority of middle schoolers were not trading stocks in 2008.
To have experienced one downturn, a trader must've been trading back in 2007/early 2008. It is safe to say most traders in their 20s today were not active traders back in 2007. I'm sure exceptions exist.
Counter to the other comment, I was in the middle of college and somehow didn't know about that until years later. After I started working in 2011 at least.
How did you miss it? I graduated in 2009 and it was the only thing people were really talking about after the 08 election wrapped up. It took a lot of people I knew over a year to find work.