2026 818 Wealth Festival: Brokerages Launch ETF Contests and AI Tools, Shift to Customer Value
At the 2026 818 Wealth Festival, ETFs remained the central focus as multiple brokerages launched related competitions and products. Guoxin Securities debuted an ETF real-money trading contest on July 20, Everbright Securities held its third ETF competition, and Zhongtai Securities added an ETF prediction game for investors. Beyond ETFs, brokerages deployed AI tools and gamified investor education, including East Money's large language model integration and Kaiyuan Securities' 'Chang'an Adventure' checkpoint game. The festival's emphasis shifted from business indicators to customer value, with firms gathering user feedback and promoting investor-advisory engagement.
ETF products remained the central focus of the 818 Wealth Festival. ETFs dominated the 2025 edition and continued to hold their appeal in the 2026 edition, with multiple brokerages launching series of ETF-related activities. Guoxin Securities kicked off its festival activities on July 20 with an ETF real-money trading competition as the centerpiece. Everbright Securities held its third ETF real-money trading competition with a more mature competition format. Changcheng Securities launched its activities under the ETF theme. Guotai Haitong hosted an ETF real-money competition, unveiled an ETF portfolio advisory product matrix and launched a financial interview program titled "ETF Relative Theory". Zhongtai Securities introduced an ETF rise and fall prediction interaction for investor education, letting investors compete to predict the weekly top gainer within a designated universe.
Immersive gamified investor education emerged as a hallmark of this year's festival. Kaiyuan Securities' "Chang'an Adventure" employed a checkpoint-based format incorporating Xi'an's regional culture, with photos automatically generated at each of its six checkpoints. Guotai Haitong offered ETF contests, expert livestreams and investor personality assessments. Wanlian Securities linked its "818 Wealth Festival + 25th Anniversary" dual-IP campaign, delivering investor education through a five-stage gamified journey. East Money introduced a dedicated "AI Inspiration" session, integrated a large language model into its app, and launched "Wealth Monopoly", an immersive investor education game.
AI applications in brokerage services deepened as well. Sinolink Securities' app shifted from "people finding services" to "services finding people", proactively pushing matched information through multi-dimensional data modeling. Soochow Securities launched its "Investment Refueling Station", which includes AI trading signal analysis, AI market monitoring, AI-powered investment assistants and investor personality assessment tools. Huaxin Securities unveiled "Grid Master", which converts quantitative strategies into intelligent commands that execute trades automatically within pre-set price ranges.
The wealth festival's objectives have shifted from business-target-driven to customer-value-driven. Sinolink Securities collected user feedback through lightweight questionnaires and recruited "long-term app experience officers" to drive product improvements. Guoyuan Securities, centered on its "Favorite Investment Advisor" selection and smart investing theme, designed a "Stock Forest Alliance Conference" to deepen investors' understanding of advisory services.
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