Tapping young investors

OPTIMISTICALLY CAUTIONS BY ERROL OH

IN this week’s Monday Starters column in StarBiz, deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin wrote about Bursa Malaysia’s goal of getting more young adults to invest in our stock market. One suggestion from the exchange is that people should buy stocks for their children so as to kindle an interest in share investing at an early age.

It’s a modest step but the ideas behind it are important – that we should start young and that parents have a major role in shaping their kids’ attitudes towards investments. If we lose sight of these, it’s the equities market that may suffer.

To maintain its liquidity and vibrancy, our stock exchange needs a healthy proportion of buying and selling by individual investors. Last year, retail participation accounted for a third of the trading value in Bursa Malaysia’s securities market.

It’s an improvement from the 24% recorded in 2008, but still a long way from the 60% level seen about a decade ago.

In trying to draw in retail investors, Bursa Malaysia is targeting the youthful set. In the chief executive officer’s message in the exchange’s annual report 2009, Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff wrote: “We are cognisant that we need the young generation investor base.”

Recent market research commissioned by the bourse found that there’s a generation gap in the Malaysian share investing arena.

The findings are presented in a booklet published as part of Bursa Malaysia’s Rethink Retail project.

According to Omar Merican, the exchange’s chief operating officer, the project’s aim is “to reach out to younger audiences to create more awareness on the capital market and how they can become more involved”.

The research has determined that investors aged between 20 and 29 make up almost 30% of the investing population but only 12% of share investors. Most of the other share investors (nearly 60%) are at least 40 years old.

It’s not that the young don’t have the money to invest in shares. They prefer to seek returns from other avenues – savings accounts, unit trust, investment-linked insurance and property.

Says Yusli in the booklet’s foreword: “We believe the future growth lies with the young Malaysian segment that is the untapped potential for the growth of this industry. There is, however, a challenge in getting more youngsters interested in viewing share investing as an option to building their investment portfolio.”

There’s a perception problem here. The research shows that the majority of young potential investors are intimidated by the risks associated with shares. They think investing in futures, options and foreign currency is less risky.

They see share investing in Malaysia as having “a strong speculative character”, and some liken it to gambling.

Just where did they get that notion? We should look at the dominant component of the share investing population – those who are 40 and above. And most of them are, in fact, parents.

Are these moms and dads teaching their children about investing in the stock market? Are they imparting the skills and knowledge that come through the experience of riding the ups and downs of the market?

If the parents cum share investors are not doing enough to help their children develop a firm understanding of share investing, the likely issue here is that they’re poor at engaging with and relating to the kids. Or maybe the parents don’t know all that much about investing in stocks.

Or could it be that parents think that share investing is so tough and perilous that don’t fancy the idea of the children going into it, in the same way that a smoker won’t encourage his child to start lighting up? If that’s the case, that’s just bad parenting – “Yes, I do it, but that doesn’t mean you should.”

There’s another possible reason for the young people’s aversion to share investing. They do passively learn about it from their parents, except that they largely pick up on the negative aspects.

The Rethink Retail booklet hints at that: “The speculative image (of share investing in Malaysia) is further fuelled with the emotional success and failure stories told by friends, family, colleagues and others”

And let’s not forget that some investors don’t rely on fundamentals and diligence. Instead, they trade based on tips and rumours. What conclusions will a child form about share investing when he often hears his parents spouting lines such as “Can still go in. They’ll push it up to RM4.30.” or “The general election is coming. The share price will surely fly?”

Bursa Malaysia has plans to convert youngsters into share investors.

In the booklet’s conclusion, the stock exchange says: “If we are able to reach out to potential investors, especially the young investors, we can change their perceptions of share investing and make shares an option to savings, deposits, property, unit trust and investment-linked insurance.”

Sure, Bursa Malaysia can do this on its own. Still, it wouldn’t hurt if the parents buy into the programme as well. But for that to happen, the parents must first believe that stocks are solid long-term investments as long as everybody plays by the rules. Now that’s the real challenge, isn’t it?

>Deputy executive editor Errol Oh is working on a pre-schoolers’ book on the stock market, tentatively titled The Stock That Sank Like A Rock. But he’s stuck because he can’t find simple, familiar words that rhyme with ‘Bursa’, ‘dividends’, ‘warrants’ (nope, ‘blackcurrants’ doesn’t work in this context) and ‘unusual market activity’.