By John Hope Bryant | Bryant Journal | April 29, 2026
Yesterday morning, I had the honor of standing in the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square and ringing the Opening Bell — not for a stock offering, not for a corporate milestone, but for something far more important: the financial future of everyday Americans.
We rang that bell for Financial Literacy Month. We rang it in anticipation of Green Socks Day on April 30. And we rang it to send a message that financial literacy is not a luxury — it is a right.
But the bell was just the beginning.
Standing alongside our team and our partners from Nasdaq, Jailan Griffiths — President of the Nasdaq Foundation and Global Head of Purpose at Nasdaq — stepped to the podium and announced something I’ve been looking forward to sharing with the world. A new partnership between Operation HOPE, Inc. and the Nasdaq Foundation: the HOPE Investor Experience, a free online learning platform that will be available to anyone, anywhere in this country.
In Jailan’s words: the Investor Experience is an innovative tool that delivers practical investing knowledge through self-guided courses, supported by HOPE Financial Wellbeing Coaches. Not behind a paywall. Not gated by a subscription. Free. Nationwide.
Let that sink in.
The same Nasdaq whose screens light up Times Square — whose exchange moves trillions of dollars every single day — has partnered with Operation HOPE, Inc. to make sure that the person working two jobs in Memphis, the young mother in Compton, the veteran starting over in rural Georgia, can access the same foundational investing knowledge that has long been reserved for people who already had money.
That is what economic inclusion looks like when it moves from rhetoric to reality.
This partnership reflects something I’ve believed my entire career: you cannot have free enterprise without free people, and you cannot have free people without financial literacy. Knowing how to budget is essential. Knowing how to build credit is critical. But knowing how to invest — how to make your money work for you — that is what separates surviving from thriving.
The Nasdaq Foundation, under Jailan’s leadership, has been doing extraordinary work to reimagine investor engagement and open the doors of capital markets participation to communities that have been locked out for too long. Operation HOPE, Inc. has been in this fight since 1992 — turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, dreamers into entrepreneurs. This partnership brings those two missions together in a powerful new way.
And the timing matters. We made this announcement two days before Green Socks Day — our second annual national call to action, powered by Financial Literacy for All, to close out Financial Literacy Month and remind the country that the first step is financial. Last year, more than 50 leading corporations joined in. More than 6,700 new clients enrolled in HOPE’s no-cost financial coaching. The #GreenSocksDay campaign generated over a million social media impressions, and top posts were featured right there on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square.
This year, we’re building on that momentum — and the HOPE Investor Experience is the proof.
So on April 30, put on your green socks. Take the quiz. Post your photo. Start the conversation. And if you or someone you know has ever wanted to learn about investing but didn’t know where to begin — now there’s a place, and it’s free.
We rang the bell yesterday. Now it’s time to answer the call.
Let’s go.
— John Hope Bryant is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Operation HOPE, Inc.
#GreenSocksDay #FinancialLiteracyForAll #TheFirstStepIsFinancial
Capitalism For All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America — Available now at all major booksellers.
John Hope Bryant — founder of Bryant Group Ventures, Operation HOPE, Inc, publisher of the Bryant Journal and author of his 7th book Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America, now a bestseller.
