Fighting Misinformation | Jessica Inskip

Tyler Gardner (0:00)

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be. I am thrilled to welcome my guest this week, Jessica Inskip, the first female on Fidelity's Active Trader Desk, and who you might just see from time to time working alongside Jim Cramer. Known for her expertise explaining advanced trading strategies and technical analysis, she has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance and the Schwab Network. Honestly, I'm surprised she doesn't have her own show at this point because she is quite simply a rock star and she knows how to take a complex topic and break it down for all to understand in an easy, engaging and digestible way. But what really drew me to inviting Jessica on the show is her ability to prioritize and promote financial literacy across all of her platforms, including her award-winning podcast, which is currently ranked number one for personal finance, well-deserved, and it is called Market Make Her. You can find her on Instagram and TikTok, where she does her best to teach you how to be fin-fluent. And I am honored that she spent the time helping me learn more about the fine balance between working in finance and teaching finance. My only apology for this episode is, once again, my own audio is all over the place, and please trust that like all else in life, I will learn quickly, I will correct mistakes, and this too will get better. Good news is I did not create a podcast to have you hear me speak, but rather to highlight voices that deserve to be amplified like Jessica's. So without further ado, a conversation with Jessica Inskip about your financial priorities, why she gave up her licenses to create content, and how we can think about markets in a more level-headed and thoughtful way.

Jessica Inskip (1:58)

As you know, finance has a lot of different jobs, and I originally actually wanted to be an engineer. I was in this magnet program in high school, and I thought I was going to do something with engineering. I actually knew AutoCAD really, really well, and I was one of those people that would solve the mechanical engineering puzzles. You didn't know it was there, you had to figure it out. I didn't know how my brain worked, but somehow did it. When I went to college, I just chose business.

So the engineering wasn't happening, but I knew the first two years was the same nonetheless, and I just went to my community college. And I got an internship at that time. And then that's when I shifted my entire career to the stock market because I found that internship, it was paid, and I got a college credit at the same time. And so I thought I was just being clever.

Tyler Gardner (2:43)

And was that the first time you considered a career in finance rather than in engineering?

Jessica Inskip (2:49)

Absolutely. I was talking to my son about this the other day. He's 13, so he's very sarcastic right now. And I was saying how I went to school for business because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And in all reality, the stock market is a bunch of businesses, and I still ended up doing the same thing.

Tyler Gardner (3:07)

One of the first things that drew me to your content, Jess, was your transparency about having given up your financial licenses in order to create social media content. And though I'm sure you've explained this at length on other channels, I'm wondering if you could help our listeners learn more about why you, A, wanted to give up the licenses to do this, and B, had to give up the licenses to do this.

Jessica Inskip (3:30)

I've explained some of it to a lot of people, but not all of it to a handful, actually. I feel like I should give you the whole story to get the context. My career, I went from scotry to fidelity. Fidelity is where I became the first female at the Active Trader Desk, that I was plucked because I needed a female when I was on the track to be a financial advisor. I was the person that would come into the office and talk about covered call writing, and the advanced platform that was there, and they needed a female in Jacksonville. They didn't have one. They said, hey, are you interested? I took my whole life and I moved up. That's the first time I took a huge risk in my life. From there, I ended up moving to Merrill, and Jacksonville, Merrill and Fidelity are across the street from each other. Not even a big busy road, just a small side road. And I ended up getting plucked over to Merrill, went up to be in charge of all of the advanced trader strategies. I was in charge of what was on the platform. Education wise, that's an important component. During that time was when COVID happened. And that's when investing became a trend, and everyone, especially the younger generation, was learning from TikTok.