Judging by attendance at the Asia Trader & Investor Convention (ATIC) over the weekend, retail investors are still enthusiastic participants in the local stock market. Despite the rain and NATAS travel fair at Singapore Expo, the crowds kept coming, perhaps swinging by after visiting the bridal fair upstairs at the Suntec Convention Centre to find ways to pay for it all.

The strong attendance should be comfort to anyone - in particular institutional investors - who might be worried about the retail investors leaving the market. A quick check with my good friends at the SGX recently confirms that the number of active investors (=traded at least once in the last three months) still hovers at around the 200,000 mark. It is retail investors who provide the liquidity needed for institutions to throw their money around. All the more reason why retail investors should be better looked-after!

While the mood was obviously not as buoyant as last year, when the bull run was still in full swing, here are other adjectives we'd use to describe the frame-of-mind of local retail investors:

Expectant. True to form, retail investors are still on the lookout for opportunity. They expressed a mixture of apprehension and opportunity. Either those who have been completely scared off by the market plunge didn't show up at ATIC at all, or they came anyway to learn new trading skills to deal with the new realities of the market.

Skeptical. The search for opportunity is coloured with an increased skepticism of the gains to be had in the market. There is a general acceptance that the good times of recent years are over, as there should be. It made overly optimistic sales pitches by anyone at the expo much less credible. No wonder most exhibitors talked about minimising losses and capital protection, than leveraging to go all out for profits.

Insecure. No surprises there. Investors came to get clarity in a market that has become murky at best. But there is also still hope that they will return in some fashion. They were willing to listen to what was being offered. The problem I see is that there were obviously fewer people who are new to investing who wanted to see how they could jump onto the bandwagon. The bandwagon has passed. If only those people realised that now is precisely the time to start thinking about investing.

What adjectives would you use to describe your frame-of-mind about the Singapore market?


Mark Laudi, who would like to say thank you to all those Investor Central customers who dropped by and said hello

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