Profile of Individual Investors in the Kelang Valley Area

Abstract

This paper reports the result of lifestyle survey on demographic and investment characteristics on a sample of shareholders residing in the Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya area. Share- | holders in Malaysia can be described as male dominated and consist mainly of Chinese origin. The majority are aged between 25 and 45, and married (and have children). They are highly | educated, engaged in the professional and managerial jobs, earning more than RM1,000 per month. They speculate actively in bull periods, going after short gains, but resort to fun- | damental analysis in bear periods, going for long term profits. On the whole, it seems that Share investors in Malaysia are those inthe middle or upper middie lass n the society, with a respectable level of education, career and income. However, it is quite disturbing fo find | the majority of them are speculators in the market. This may not be consistent with the | promotion of informed investment, which s anecessary condition for capital market efficiency.