Sharesies’ Leighton Roberts on investment tips for uncertain stock markets – The Prosperity Project

Sharesies co-founder Leighton Roberts says Kiwis often underestimate how much they know about investing. Photo / Supplied

It’s been a bumpy ride on sharemarkets this year, but the co-founder of the country’s biggest share trading platform believes Kiwis are getting better at handling volatility.

The NZX 50 had fallen almost 10% by April from its January peak but has since recovered to only be down about 4% in the year to date. The S&P 500 meanwhile fell almost 20% by April from its February peak but is now slightly up in the year to date.

While the initial turbulence from the US trade wars has calmed down, the potential for volatility remains. Shares for Tesla dropped by 14.2% last week, after the company’s CEO Elon Musk engaged in a public feud with US President Donald Trump.

Sharesies director, co-founder and 3EO Leighton Roberts, told Nadine Higgins on The Prosperity Project podcast that of the company’s 800,000 customers, only a few thousand of them are active traders.

“They are quite active at the moment and whenever things are highly volatile. Someone the other day emailed us through trying to put quite a large amount of money into the platform saying that ‘when the blood’s around, I’m around’.”

But about 100,000 Sharesies customers invest smaller amounts consistently, and in the thick of that volatility, “our dollar cost average [customers] just continue on through and really stick with it, and the same with our KiwiSaver customers”, Roberts said.

While the pandemic-induced volatility prompted many investors to panic and switch out of higher-risk investments and funds, Roberts believes New Zealanders have matured as investors.

“New Zealanders have pretty much always been pretty good property investors in that people have bought them and held them for a very long period of time, and they’ve made the most out of a bit of leverage. And now I think people are becoming pretty good investors into other asset classes as well.”

He finds Kiwis often underestimate how much they do know about investing.

“It’s just amazing how often I get this, like, ‘I know nothing about investing, I use Sharesies as I just put $50 every week in an auto invest’ or something like that. And I’m like – that is a great strategy.

“You know exactly what you’re doing and you actually know about investing.”

Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more investing tips from Leighton Roberts, including how to get into international shares.

The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.