Redefining investors' goals in the post–normal world

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to show the changing behavior of investors in the post-pandemic period, the continued development of “emotional communities” in the financial market, as well as the factors contributing to their formation and the role of such communities in the elaboration of investors' decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe research includes an analysis of the popularity of various terms searched in the US segment of Google in the financial category from 2004 to 2022, their correlation with financial market indicators and theoretical observations around these data.FindingsThe results obtained by the author allow him to draw the following conclusions: (1) the change in investors' behavior indicates the formation of the new distributed community-centric model of the financial market; (2) the main distinguishing feature of the behavior of many retail investors is gamification; (3) the networking of investors contributes to a significant change in their priorities in the elaboration of investment decisions; (4) the fundamental indicators of the financial market play an ever decreasing role in the decision-making of individual investors.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, the formation of emotional communities of investors and their role in the elaboration of mass investor decisions is not widely covered in the literature. The paper develops a framework for further studies on the role of emotional communities in the financial market and in changing behavior of retail investors.