How many Filipinos trade stocks online?

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Do you know how many Filipinos invest in stocks and how many of them trade online? Come on, take a guess.

Ten million Filipinos? One million?

Believe it or not, the answer is actually much lower.

Are you part of the elite 1%?

A survey conducted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) among 14 local trading participants shows that only less than one percent (1%) of the Philippine population invest in stocks.

The total number of trading accounts (both online and live broker-facilitated) reached 585,562 in 2013, representing a mere 0.6% of the country’s population.

Are you part of this very small group of people?

It is indeed an insignificant chunk of the population but the good news is that this number is growing, recording an 11.4% increase from the number in 2012.

Online stock trading activity

In terms of online trading, 129,255 accounts or 22% of total stock trading accounts are online-based.  If we are to assign a one-to-one relationship between a trading account and a stock trader, we can surmise that only 129,255 Filipinos trade stocks online.

Very few, indeed, but this number is already a huge 65.25% spike from 2012.

In terms of the number of online stock trades made in 2013, meanwhile, 29.3% of total trades were done through an online stock broker. This was an increase compared to the 28.2% share in 2012.

Overall, retail investors (i.e., individual investors) still form the majority of stock traders in the Philippines. These retail investors account for 96.2% of total account, while only 3.8% were institutional or corporate accounts.

Here’s a table summarizing some basic data about stock trading in the Philippines.

Number of stock traders and online trading activity in the Philippines

20092010201120122013
Total number of online trading accounts28,26135,55952,75078,216129,255
Annual growth rate of online trading accounts25.80%48.40%48.30%65.25%
Total number of stock trading accounts (online and live brokers)525,850585,562
% of online trading accounts versus total14.87%22.07%
% of live broker accounts versus total85.13%77.93%
Online trades as a % of total stock trades28.20%29.30%
Broker-facilitated trades as a % of total trades71.80%70.70%

Happy trading!

See also: INFOGRAPHIC: Profile of the Filipino Stock Market Investor

Source: Philippine Stock Exchange

To learn more about stock trading, read these awesome, useful posts!

About the Author

James Ryan Jonas teaches business strategy, investments, and entrepreneurship at the University of the Philippines (UP). He is also the Executive Director of UP Provident Fund Inc., managing and investing P3.1 Billion ($56 Million) worth of retirement funds on behalf of thousands of UP employees.

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