How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market now?



Ever since I learned about the stock market and investing in it way back in 2007-2008 (3rd to 4th year college), I have sporadically been monitoring it. Which begs the most basic question: How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market? 

At the time, the world was in the brink of the global financial crisis. There was a  "Rise Crisis" (Rise of prices of food, fuel, and the like, even crimes) in the Philippines. I didn't have any money then, so I invested in myself, in financial knowledge. It has been a long journey due to the fact that back then, I wasn't very fond of finance, so it was mostly an emotional change and paradigm shift on my part.

How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market in 2008?
A survey conducted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) at the time showed that very few Filipinos participate in the stock market. According to the survey, there were only 430,681 accounts being maintained for Filipino investors by PSE trading participants in 2007 - representing not even 1/2 of 1% of the 89 million population of the Philippines. Of the total, only 103,412 or just a little over 1/10 of 1% of the population were considered active or involved in at least one trade in a year.

The figures are in stark contrast with that of other Southeast Asian nations' stock market. The number of investors in Singapore has the highest proportion of its population — around 33% — with investments in the stock market. Japan and Australia both have roughly 25% each; while Malaysia has 18%; Hong Kong, 17%; and Korea, 10% of their citizens invest in the stock market.

So applying some rough calculations, that's about close to 0.5% and with about a 90 Million population, the realistic population of investors would be around 500,000 or so. Well, that sucks. Even more sucky news is that of the total, only 103,412 or just a little over 1/10 of 1% of the population were considered active or involved in at least one trade in a year.


Profile of Filipino Stock Market Investors
Let's take a closer look to see and further breakdown this sad less than 1% figure. In 2011, a report on the “Profile of Filipino Stock Market Investors” was published by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). I made a rough summary of it below:
  • Age - 71.4% of stock investors are from ages 30-59 y.o. while the 60 and above comprise 18.5% and lastly the under 30 at 10.1%
  • Gender - Male investors are at 58.5% while females at 41.5%
  • Income - Contrary to common notion, the bulk of local stock market investors are not the super-rich but your average-earning Filipino. More than 37.4% of accounts are owned by Filipinos earning an annual income of less than Php500,000 (less than $12,000 annually). People earning more than Php1 million per year represent 34.5% of total accounts while those earning between Php500,000 and Php1 million annually comprise 28.1%.
  • Location - Not so surprisingly, the geographic distribution of the investing population are majority in Metro Manila with 76.8% and then the rest of Luzon with 13%. Around 6.1% are from the Visayas and 2.3%are from Mindanao. Overseas Investors specifically O.F.Ws comprise 1.9%

How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market - fast forward to 2013?
Do you know how many Filipinos invest in stocks and how many of them trade online? Take a guess! A million or two, perhaps ten? The PSE once again conducted a survey to determine this.

The total number of trading accounts (both online and live broker-facilitated) reached 585,562 in 2013, representing a mere 0.6% of the country’s population. Are you part of this very small group of people? I was an observer so I'm not part of the elite 1% during this period.


So how many invest in the stock market today? The short answer is it's still less than 1%!!! But I'm now part of this figure. Investing in the stock market is risk and there are no guarantees in any investments and even life in general. There will always be advantages and disadvantages.

The Stock Market exist for local companies to raise money from the public so they can expand further, which in turn boosts our economy. So Yes, invest now for not only are you becoming an owner of a company (Jollibee, Globe, Aboitiz and the like), you are also contributing to our economic growth -- in short, it is a form of Nation Building I'd say!

"Our situation is like a coin, heads or tails, an upside or downside, advantages or disadvantages, and if crisis is on one side there are most definitely opportunities on the other"

How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market now? How many Filipinos invest in the Stock Market now? Reviewed by Vernon Joseph Go on Sunday, January 10, 2016 Rating: 5

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