50 per cent of clients locked in profits over the past 12 months, according to data from Moomoo Singapore. This was revealed by Gavin Chia, CEO of Moomoo Singapore, in his keynote presentation at MooFest 2023 — Moomoo Singapore’s largest community event of the year.

“That’s 1 in 2 of our clients,” he added. 

3.4 per cent of Moomoo Singapore’s clients posted a gain of more than 100 per cent over the past 12 months, while 10.9 per cent of clients saw their portfolios returned between 30 to 40 per cent in the same period. The biggest group (16.4 per cent) posted gains of up to 10 per cent. 

“These are remarkable numbers in a period of extreme volatility. Despite grappling with geopolitical tensions, an aggressive interest rate hike regime, earnings pressure, as well as rising risks of a recession, investors continued to outperform,” Chia said. 

This comes as the number of users in Singapore hit more than 800,000, with at least 1 in 4 adults using the platform. 

The majority of Moomoo Singapore’s clients with positive returns over the last 12 months are tech-savvy investors who leverage technology to unlock profits, Chia said. 

These clients utilised five powerful tools on the moomoo platform to unlock profits, including earnings calendar, visualised financials and advanced quantitative trading tools. 

“Tech is at the core of everything we do. We firmly believe in the power of financial technology in transforming the investment landscape, and we invest heavily in our tech capabilities to ensure that we are able to provide our clients with the best tools to help them succeed in their investment journeys,” Chia said. 

Held on 15 July 2023, the event was attended by nearly 1,000 tech-savvy investors, many of whom turned up bright and early at Suntec City Convention Hall on Saturday morning. Among the exciting slew of activities was a series of panel discussions helmed by experts from the financial sector, including Fullerton Fund Management, Societe Generale, UOB Asset Management, CSOP Asset Management, SGX Group and more. They touched on diverse topics such as market outlook, investment strategies, opportunities in Asia and beyond, and more. 

“We are heartened to see such a huge turnout at our flagship event. Moomoo Singapore has grown from strength to strength over the years, and it’s all because of the strong support and belief in us from our clients and partners. We will continue to work together with you to grow this community,” Chia said.  

Kicking off the panel discussions was our special panel: “Thriving in an age of turbulence: Harnessing knowledge and the power of technology to enhance financial resilience”. The panelists included Gavin Chia of Moomoo Singapore, Pol de Win, Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Sales and Origination at SGX Group; Benjamin Goh, Head of Research at SIAS and Senior Lecturer at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT); as well as Professor Ho Yew Kee, Cluster Director, Business, Communication and Design at SIT.

Other notable speakers at the main stage include Stephen Tan from Fullerton Fund Management; Nicole Tan from CSOP Asset Management; Chong Jiun Yeh from UOB Asset Management, and Lin Yuin from Lion Global Investors. 

Unsurprisingly, attendees were concerned about the volatile macro environment, in particular, the impact of further interest rate hikes on their portfolios. One panel focused on how investors can maximise their passive income in a high-interest rate environment, with one speaker being overweight fixed income for its stable returns and income, as well as the asset class’s relatively lower volatility. 

While gold is traditionally viewed as a safe haven asset, some panelists see gold as having limited utility given the challenge of storing physical gold as well as the precious metal’s lack of yield. Real estate investment trusts — a popular investing instrument among investors in Singapore — also received signficant airtime as the panelists debated the merits of holding the asset class for its constant income stream while balancing its sensitivity to interest rate movements.

“Investors who are looking to potentially enhance their return on our relatively stable Singapore blue chip stocks can look to the Daily Leverage Certificates (DLCs) listed on SGX,” says Marcus Ng of Societe Generale. DLCs enable investors to take fixed leveraged exposure to an underlying asset for both long or short directions of the trade, but there are risks involved and should only be left to sophisticated investors.

Several guest speakers also spoke on opportunities in China that are driven by supportive financial conditions, consumption recovery and attractive valuations. They identified digitalisation, the green economy and the healthcare sector as among the key investment themes in the world’s second-largest economy. 

Closer to home, Southeast Asia is also an attractive market for investors, according to the speakers. They noted that the region will be home to one-sixth of the world’s consumer class by 2030, with the internet services and tech sectors tipped to be the top beneficiaries of higher consumer spending. 

MooFest 2023 also hosted several Singapore-based financial bloggers, who shared with the audience their personal investment journeys. They touched on topics such as their best and worst investments, as well as key learnings gleaned from dipping their toes in the stock market. Timothy Ho of Dollars and Sense said investors should not simply jump on the bandwagon and should instead choose investments that are suited for them, while Dawn Cher of SG Budget Babe shared the importance of having a portfolio of blue-chip stocks that doesn’t require constant monitoring due to her busy schedule. 

“We are grateful for the wide breadth and depth of the topics that were discussed at MooFest 2023. From my interactions with attendees at the event, I am confident they have benefited from the wealth of insights the speakers have generously shared. We look forward to working with the speakers on future events and we remain committed to connecting more experts with our Moo community,” Chia said.