Investor Presentaiton
39.
the proportion of derivatives investors who are online traders is also less than
30% (26% in 2003); a large proportion of online derivatives traders also trade
online all of the time or most of the time (76% in 2003).
Online stock traders tend to be of higher educational level and higher work
status and more active in stock trading than non-online stock traders.
Online traders opt for convenience of online service and non-online traders worry
about online security.
40.
According to the SFC-RIS 2003 survey, 92% of retail investors who traded
online¹ did so for convenience, 21% for lower commission rate. Insecurity is
the major barrier to online trading (46% of non-online investors) followed by
computer/Internet illiteracy (23%). The knowledge or illiteracy barrier has
become less significant over the past two years (45% of non-online stock
investors chose it as a reason in 2001 according to HKEx RIS 2001). The
current security concerns may relate to fake bank websites found from time to
time and some incidents of bank online systems failing in the past year.
How mature are they?
Stock investors rely increasingly on self-study for investment decisions; media
influence is still significant.
41. Stock investors increasingly rely on their own analysis to make buy-sell
decisions (83% of stock investors in 2003 from the SFC-RIS compared to 45%
in 1997 from HKEX RIS). They also made reference to celebrity analysts (45%,
according to SFC-RIS) and media reports (42%). According to the SFC-IRA,
unlike institutional investors who obtain research reports directly from the
brokerage firms, retail investors access research reports mainly through the
broadcast media and financial websites; and they are more interested in factual
details and analysis on specific stocks or industry sectors than specific
recommendations and target prices. However, just one-third of investors
referred to corporate documents but over 50% relied on transaction volume,
which seems to be less related to future stock performance.
42.
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According to SFC-RIS, the stock attribute that most stock investors (97%)
considered important in investment decision is financial position, but only 64%
knew it for the stocks they had invested in. Other attributes that were
considered important include prospects (97%), nature of business (93%) and
risks of holding that stock (92%). However, for all these attributes, the
percentage of stock investors knowing them was less than the percentage
In the survey, retail investors include those investing in investment products other than stocks and
derivatives and online trading excludes e-banking services.View entire presentation