Nearly 60 percent of Taiwanese failed to achieve their investment objectives in the past five years, worse than their peers in Asia and globally, international asset management firm Schroders PLC said yesterday.
While Taiwanese used to be active investors in times of market volatility, they have turned conservative since the end of last year, unsettled by the US-China trade dispute, the survey found.
In the past five years, 59 percent of Taiwanese failed to realize their investment goals, more than 56 percent in the region and 51 percent globally, according to the survey that polled 25,743 investors from 32 countries in April and May.
The UK-based firm limits its annual survey to people with investments of at least NT$350,000.
To explain the disappointing returns, 20 percent blamed a weaker-than-expected showing on their investment tools, 18 percent cited unrealistic return expectations and 17 percent said that more time was needed.
Taiwanese seek a 10.7 percent return on average, on par with their global counterparts, but behind the 11.5 percent target among Asian investors, the survey showed.
Still, return expectations are much higher than those provided by the MSCI Global Index, which has generated 6.25 percent returns annually for the past five years on average, it said.
Schroder Investment Management Taiwan said that 31 percent of local investors had previously opted to raise stock positions, the second-highest in terms of risk tolerance.
However, the US-China trade dispute has changed their behavior, as 36 percent plan to stay on the sidelines until uncertainty clears, the local fund house said.
Only 17 percent said that they would increase holdings, lower than global investors at 30 percent and Asian peers at 27 percent, it said.
“That is probably because Taiwan has heavy exposure to both the US and China, the world’s two largest end markets for consumer electronic products,” Schroders Taiwan said.
The nation is home to the world’s top contract makers of electronics used in smartphones and laptops, rendering corporate earnings vulnerable to high tariffs.
Market volatility is inevitable and patience is the best way to emerge profitable, Schroders chief investment solution officer Charles Prideaux said.
“Frequent changes of investment tools to pursue yields have time and again proved disappointing,” Prideaux said.
Taiwanese spent an average of 2.6 years on their investments, similar to global peers and Asian counterparts at 2.6 years and 2.5 years respectively, the survey found.
However, 40 percent of local investors pulled out in less than a year, it added.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS