2020 was undoubtedly an unusual year for many reasons. The pandemic and ensuing global lockdown led to serious concerns about the shape of the overall economy, including unemployment, the viability of smaller businesses and government stimulus responses. However, the reaction in the capital market seems to tell a different story. Both globally and in Malaysia, we saw retail investor participation reaching record highs. Headlines abounded with reports of surges in retail account openings. A new wave of investors, younger and digitally-savvy, entered the capital market.  ICMR has put together a Background Paper on Retail Investor Behaviour in 2020: Data Insights, which looks at some of the key data points on retail investors last year.

In addition, ICMR organised a webinar titled “Retail Investor Behaviour: 2020 and Beyond” on April 12, 3pm to explore some of these ideas:

• What does the retail investor pattern we saw in 2020 say about investor behaviour?
• How are the new generation of investors changing the way we think about investment?
• How do we strike a balance between making investment accessible and over encouraging risk-taking behaviour?
• What is the role of digital platforms and social media content creators as younger investors increasingly invest and seek information online?
• How can financial education be more effective, and how do you educate someone on making decisions based on fundamentals and not sentiment?

Click below to download the full background paper.