Many investors do not know where their money is
'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
The words of Jesus that appear in Luke 23:34 could be applied to the majority of Hong Kong's retail investors.
In the most comprehensive general public survey carried out by the Securities and Futures Commission, the watchdog has concluded that two-thirds of the city's retail investors knew very little about what they were putting their money in. Mind you, the same could probably be said of many institutional investors these days.
The survey also found that most of the 1,502 regular punters interviewed expected a level of return that was disproportionate to the level of risk they were willing to accept.
For example, 54 per cent considered bonds as having the lowest perceived risks among eight types of investment products, including bank deposits (47.9 per cent).