We have done several studies on individual investors in the Vietnamese stock markets. In order to do so we have interviewed more than 200 individual investors investing in the Vietnamese stock markets.
We will show some of the interesting results in our blog over time.
Let us start today with the ability of individual investors to clearly understand and being able to define the concept of being a shareholder. This seems obvious but results can be surprising sometimes.
When the following question was asked: "Prior to start investing in stock markets, would you have been able to properly define the ins and outs of a being a shareholder?"
Between 20% and 25% of the individual investors investing on the Vietnamese stock markets respond that they simply cannot.
This is a huge number! This means that one out of four (or at least one out of five) of these individual investors do not fully understand what being a shareholder means. An astonishing result! As a kind reminder and if you are confused about the key aspect of being a shareholder, what you need to keep in mind is that shareholders are essentially owners in a company and they reap the benefits of a business’ success.
An additional 30% to 33% of respondents say that they are able to define it but not with precision. This is quite understandable.
Finally, roughly 45% (that is a minority) of respondents say that they are able to precisely define what being a shareholder means.