Here’s a question: do you know how many multi-millionaires there are in Hong Kong? Any idea what percentage of them are women?

 

The answer is: 511,000 or 7% of Hong Kong’s population! Surprisingly female multi-millionaires make up 46%*! Bet you didn’t know that.

 

Women are clearly increasingly occupying a more important seat in terms of helping themselves and their families build up their personal wealth! 

 

Given women and men have such different personality traits a lot people wonder: who makes the better investor? Women or men?

 

Professor Neil Stewart, a professor of Behavioral Science at Warwick University in the U.K., studied the investment performance of 2,800 people in a period of 36 months. The results show that the average annual return on investment (ROI) by male investors is only 0.14% better than the FTSE 100 index‘s (U.K.’ leading stock index) return while female investors outperform the index by 1.94%!

 

Female investors in this case outperformed male investors by a sizable 1.8%! What’s the reason behind this? 

 

Women trade less than men

 

 

Research team led by Professor Stewart pointed out: "Men are just a little more likely to be drawn to more speculative stocks whereas women are more likely to focus on shares that already have a good track record. Women also take a more long-term perspective, trading less frequently. This possibly means women are investing more to support their financial goals, whereas men are attracted to what they see as the thrill of investing." 

How much less do women trade versus men? Women traded 30% less than men trading only nine times a year on average compared to 13 times for men.

 
Furthermore female investors were less likely to partake in "lottery style" investments that appealed more to men and Professor Stewart defines "lottery style" investing as a tendency to invest in more speculative, lower priced shares that might increase in value substantially, along with a desire to keep to shares that show a loss while selling off their the ones that have actually increased in value (called “winners”).

As a whole male investors are more aggressive and therefore trade more frequently while on the contrary, women generally invest to increase their sense of security so they pay more attention to their long-term investment plans.

 

 

Famous female investors you should know

 

Let's take a look at the dazzling performance of these outstanding female investors!

 

(1) Geraldine Weiss

 

 

 

Geraldine Weiss is the first female superstar in the financial industry known as the "Blue-Chip Queen" or "the Grande Dame of Dividends". Active since the 1960s, she has shown Wall Street that women can also be successful investors.

 

Geraldine's path to success was not easy. At that time even though she already had shown a superior aptitude towards investing, no investment bank was willing to hire her because it was a male-dominated society and no one believed that women could gain a foothold in the financial world.

 

In the face of rejection, Geraldine's interest in finance and investing was not extinguished. Geraldine founded the Investment Quality Trends newsletter in 1966 and published her investment research and strategies. Her unique and rigorous stock selection strategy is value-based and focuses on a company's dividends (a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders usually as a distribution of profits) rather than its earnings.

Her belief was that dividends could tell us a lot about a company and its stock. For example a rising trend in dividends (since that resulted from earnings) were a good indication of growth for a company. Also repetitive dividends could establish reliable patterns of undervaluation and overvaluation for companies.

Geraldine Weiss’s investment strategy consisted of one simple rule: Buy shares when the dividend yield is within 10% of its highest historical value or at its highest point in the past five years. Sell shares when dividend yield is within 10% of its lowest historical value or bottom in the last five years.

How successful was Geraldine investment instincts? Her newsletter publishes a list of 13 recommended stocks called “The Lucky 13” annually since 1966 and annual returns stands at 11.8% compared to 9.7% for the Warren Buffet-led Berkshire Hathaway and 4.5% for the S&P 500 Index. Impressive!

 

Geraldine's rational, logical, and rigorous investment strategy has been sought after by many investors and Weiss is regarded as one of the most successful female investors of all time. 

 

 

(2) Joanne Wilson

 

 

Joanne Wilson was listed as the “Top 50 Women Investors in 2019” by capital.com. As a successful investor in recent times, Joanne has worked in a variety of industries including retail, wholesale and media before she ventured her way into angel investing in 2007 through a friend.

Joanne may not be as well known investing into traditional assets like stocks and bonds but Joanne has invested diversely in more than 90 individual companies that include start-ups, coffee companies, technology companies and even pharmaceutical companies.

Her portfolio has performed extremely well. It is worth noting that Joanne's companies are mainly founded or owned by women. This is intentional. Joanne writes that her decision to invest heavily in women was “more practical than philanthropic. Women founders tend to be tenacious and thorough. They ask questions and listen. They are great leaders.”
 

So as we can see from two successful female investors, the golden rules of investing are being rational, focus on the long-term and stay diversified. 

 

 

Taking the first step into your investment journey

 

 

Personality traits shown by female investors can indeed be advantageous when it comes to long term investing. If you are also interested in investing, here are some tips for taking your first step:

 

1. Establish an investment budget: This is your baseline. You need to ask yourself how much can you invest given your current income? Can you maintain normal daily expenses even with your new investment demands?

 

2. Prioritize savings over expenses: Many people save the money they have left over at the end of the month. You should prioritize savings first and then spend what you have left over after. This approach will mean you will always have enough set aside to make long-term investments with an added peace of mind.

 

3. Establish an emergency savings account: This is to ensure that you can easily cope with unexpected expenses that may arise suddenly out of the blue. Money set aside for a rainy day is important!

 

4. Invest in a way that is consistent with your goals and risk tolerance: Don't be overly and easily influenced by market trends or ‘insights’ from friends and focus on your long term investment goals. These goals are your north star.
 

If you think that it is still difficult to achieve a long-term, diversified and rational investment style like these experienced female investors we mentioned, you can consider AQUMON’s intelligent investment platform.

 

Beyond making investing more convenient, diversified and stable AQUMON also monitors your investment portfolio 24x7 so you can sleep soundly at night. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

International Women's Day is a great day to commemorate the struggle of working women worldwide for peace, liberation and women's rights. Ladies, let us shake off these gender stereotypes, join the investment world, and give ourselves a big gift for the next 10, 20, 30 years!
 

 

AQUMON also gives you an added gift for International Women's Day. Good until March 12th (Thursday) this week all lady investors who try AQUMON’s new Basic Series ETF portfolios can enjoy free advisory fee for 3 months until June 30th 2020.
 

Click HERE to experience intelligent investment service immediately.

 

Happy International Women's Day!

 

* Data source: Citibank "Hong Kong Multi-Millionaire Survey Report 2018"

 

 

Relative blogs: Ladies, let’s start taming our investing fears and take control of our money!

 

About us

As a leading startup in the FinTech space, AQUMON aims to make sophisticated investment advice cost-effective, transparent and accessible to both institutional and retail markets, via the adoptions of scalable technology platforms and automated investment algorithms.

AQUMON’s parent company Magnum Research Limited is licensed with Type 1, 4 and 9 under the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. In 2017, AQUMON became the first independent Robo Advisor to be accredited by the SFC.

AQUMON’s investors include Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Bank of China International and HKUST.

 

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