Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new talk radio Freedom 106.5.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: We have an interview for you at this time discussing finances.
Welcome to our program manager of market operations, the TNT Stock exchange. That's Jace Tory. Good morning to you. Welcome to our program.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Good morning, south asian. Thank you for having me this morning.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Nice to have you with us here this morning. Definitely an interesting discussion. And we're here to discuss the stock exchange, how people can use it, what's been happening with the stock exchange and all those kinds of things. But before we get into that nitty gritty detail, let me allow you to familiarize the listener with you a bit.
Tell us a bit about yourself and some of the things that you're involved in.
Sure.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: So as you mentioned, the market operations manager and trying to Vegas of exchange. You know, what we've been focusing on recently and, you know, in the past year and a bit before that is, you know, really getting that education out there so that, you know, the everyday person has that knowledge to equip them with, you know, investing. You know, it's not just that investing should only be for wealthy people or big companies. It should be for the everyday man. It should be for me, should be for you. It should be for anybody, really.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I have discussions with people about investing more frequently than I realize. Actually I do. We have discussions on the program in my private capacity. I've been speaking to people about it as well. And there are a lot of concerns that people have and some limitations that they create in their own minds about investing and what investing means and all those things. Maybe we should begin there explaining to people what does it mean to be an investor.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Right? So, I mean, simply put, investing is really anything that you put out of yours to get back a return in the future. And when it comes to, you know, investing financially, it basically means simply putting out your money now to get back more money in the future. You know, that was actually a quote by Warren Buffett, who's probably considered the most, you know, famous investor of all time. And investing on stock market is really you plan out your money to buy stocks or shares of stock exchange to get back some sort of return in the future, whether it is the growth and value of your stock or income through dividends that companies pay out.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: You see, it's a, I don't want to describe it as difficult, probably challenging discussion to have with people because people have their own perceptions, as you suggested, that here is a rich people thing and I can't get myself involved. I don't know because we are in an environment where people have to, they have to make decisions on what they do with their money. There are, and it's, it's, it's becoming harder and harder for people, some people at least, to decide, well, where do I make an allowance? Where do I find the money? Because most times I live in paycheck to paycheck and I want to get out of this thing. I'd like to have a more secure financial future. But it just seems impossible to me. Now. When you sit with people who tell you that and you look and you say, well, let's, let's, let's analyze some of what you do, you realize that people waste a lot of their money.
I think it's a lot, yeah, that's true. And if, I think I've been looking at some of these videos as well, it suggests that as much as 15 or 20% could be even higher. People spend on frivolous things, but they don't see it as frivolous things, or they don't see it as ways that they could cut back on their spending because they simply do put the effort into budgeting. And I'm assuming that budgeting is a very important part of investing as well, because from some of the discussions that we've had, we've been at some of the events hosted by the stock exchange. And on that morning, I was at one event at the Hyatt. I was there and I had some really, really interesting discussions with some of the stakeholders about investing. And your conversation here this morning is, I'm hoping a continuation of that discussion that we begin for the listeners, for those who would have been privy to the discussion. So let's get into it.
Investing in the stock exchange.
How can people get involved in investing? And what kind of money do you need to have to start investing?
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Sure. So let me just give the listeners again, a little bit of a background. So, like investing, it allows retail investors, so when I say retail investors, I mean individuals, so not any corporate body or anything like that. Retail investors, to benefit from the growth and profitability of local companies, meaning that when the company grows and you own a part of that company through a share, your value also grows, as well as when they earn income, they pay out dividends. So that's what you earn as well. It's important for investors to diversify portfolios. You know, you can buy different shares, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. And that potentially allows investors to get significant returns over time, growing your wealth. Additionally, these trinitarian stock exchange. We are one of the regulators of the stock market. So we provide a regulated and transparent market, ensuring investors protection and confidence. So when we start about saying getting started, right. So it's, it's fairly easy actually. You open a brokerage account. When I see a brokerage account, we have eight registered brokers with the Trinidad Stock Exchange on our website, www. Dot stockx, dot Co, dot TT, you could see our listed, our registered brokers. And what they do is you can go to your broker, you know, shop around, find out which broker best fits you, you speak to them, you know, you open an account with a broker, they can help you with advice and help you get started. After you open that brokerage account, the second step is you fund your accounts, you add some money, you ask a question about how much do you need to start. So let's put it simply, the most expensive stock on our, on our market is less than $120 right now. Which means, you know, if you were to just buy one stock, the most you would put out right now is $120. So that's really not a lot to get started. So continuing from there, after you open your brokerage account and you deposit your money, it's important to, you know, conduct some research. You know, find out which stocks you know are, seem to be performing well, which ones, you know, are a bit lower right now and gives you that opportunity to get in on a lower price. Look at things that, such as how much dividends have they been paying recently. So you can do research and then after you can start placing your trades, so you can place your trades by, you know, contacting your broker, they could place trades for you or as well. You could also sign up for online trading platform which is called top, which is available 24 hours a day. And from top you can place trades on your own.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: It sounds intimidating.
[00:07:22] Speaker C: I know it can sound intimidating, but it's failures and process. The hardest part of it is getting started. And once you get started, you can realize, okay, I bought this stock and it's gone up, say 1% since last week. That's a bit of a return. Whereas sometimes when your money sits down in your bank account or just at home, you see zero return. You actually lose money when the cost of living continues to increase and those sort of things.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: So we see a lot of things on social media and one of the concerns people have you talking about people's money is safety and security. There are a lot of these pop up ads that come for trade and this one and that one and the next one or the other trying to solicit business and say that, well, you know, we can help you do this and we can help you do that. And the next and the other. And offering you a free trial period for a month and everything else. And then they try to get you to get your cash in order to do real trading. Are those things legitimate? Should people be wary? What's your advice?
[00:08:30] Speaker C: So, in terms of those things, I would say that be wary. When it comes to investments, it's important to look to see if these investments are registered not only with the Trinan Tobago stock exchange, but also with the Trina Tobago securities and Exchange Commission. So they are the overall regulators in our market of investments. So you would see that if an investment is legal to trade in Trina Tobago, they would be registered with the securities and Exchange Commission. You see a lot of these ads pop up. I mean, sometimes it's good to think, you know, oh, I'm gonna get all these high returns for this. Say if I put in 1000, they promised me 10,000 back. Sometimes if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Yeah. There, you know, in business.
I remember in business classes in high school, the very first thing the teacher said is, let the buyer beware.
And she went on to explain what that meant in the business world and everything else. And how complicated it can get when it comes to investing. I guess that's doubly so that you need to beware of what's going on. But let's take it from the side of the stock exchange. I know that the stock exchange has been on several campaigns to educate and inform the population about what the stock exchange is and how they do business. And to get people more involved to have a more vibrant stock exchange and everything else. What steps have been taken by the stock exchange to make investing more accessible and understandable for people to want to become more involved.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Sure. So the Trin Tobago Stock Exchange has launched a continuous financial literacy investor awareness campaign. We even partnered with, you know, the financial literacy program here in Trenton, Tobago. You know, we go on plenty. We do plenty of webinars. Just. Just aimed at educating the population and investors of how to get started and where to continue. You know, we even give some simple, you know, basic starting investment strategies in these webinars. We also go in physical workshops. We have numerous educational resources on our website. We have a mailing list. We're on all social platforms where we put out little tidbits, daily, weekly. And we also, you know, we want to just make it less intimidating for new investors and ones who want to start a bit afraid to start.
We also have been building more when awareness by attending various trade shows and expos. So anytime you see, you know, sort of a trade show pop up, it's possible that we're going to be there with a booth and you could come up and approach us and we could, you know, give you some of that information on how to get started or, you know, or where to go, you know. Furthermore, we also host our own conference called the Trinidad Tobago Stock Exchange Capital Markets conference. It's in October and this year will be installment. We had a really good conference last year and we had some really good feedback. So we are planning to have it bigger and better this year where retail investors could also purchase tickets to attend. They could gain valuable insights in the local and regional capital markets as well as you can probably do some networking there as well. Theres a lot of the companies who are listed on Trinidad Stock Exchange, they would be there as well as some of the brokers as well. It's a really good event for persons to attend.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Let's explain, let me allow you to explain because when, as I said that you all had an event and we were there and one of the points that came out repeatedly with the interviews that I had done prior to the event starting is that there is a fundamental difference between investing and saving. Your savings and your investments are two totally different things. It was a learning experience for me as well because I thought to myself, well, my investment could work as my savings, that kind of thing. And apparently that's not the best approach, is it?
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah. So, and you may have heard before that rule that, you know, 50, 30, 20 where they say, you know, out of your salary, but 50% of it to your needs. That's important. You know, you want to put 30% your wants, you know, some of the things you want to be doing, you know, you need to have a balanced life and then 20% to savings. So what I'm here to say is that I see that 20% as savings. Yes, good savings and investments should be linked in that way. So while you have savings, it shouldn't just be cash. You need to use some of that for investments because cash savings, they do not gain value. Whereas when you invest, the goal is to gain some value from it. You don't want to just have your money sitting down there losing value because prices continue to go up. So it's important, yes, to have some cash on the side in case of emergencies. But part of that also needs to go to investments. So that it can grow and have your money work for you.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: That's an interesting bit of information, the 50, 30, 20 and how things are supposed to work. So let's, we may have covered it a bit in, in the beginning, but let's go back to making it simple for everyone. Let's just say there are people listening in to us that after our conversation, say to themselves, you see me, I want to try this investing thing. Cut back on some of the wastage that I indulge in and let me see if I can put this money to more creative use.
What kind of money do people need to start at the lowest rung and how, how do they start getting information? Do they come to the stock exchange? Is there a help desk that they come to or group that says, listen to me, I want to exchange by way, guide me, I want you. Does it work that way or do you have to go through a broker?
[00:14:22] Speaker C: All right, sure. So let me take the first part of the question. So let me just go over again how we can get started. Right?
As I mentioned earlier, the first step is opening a brokerage account, right? So to open a brokerage account, on our website we have the registered stock brokers with us. Currently we have eight. They all have different, you know, they have different goals of their investment firms. You know, some may have a minimum amount to start, some, you know, have no amount start. So it's all about what works for you as an investor. As I said, you can go to the Toronto Stock Exchange website, you know, our phone numbers listed. You can call us and we can actually walk you through the process of going to these brokers, give you the names of the brokers, if that's easier for you, you know, help you go along about who to contact and what will be best for you. As I said, after opening that brokerage account, you add some money to your brokerage account. This is where, you know, depending on the broker, they may have a minimum to start or they may have no amount to start. So if they have no amount to start, the minimum, the buy one share on the stock exchange, you would need at most around $120. Right now, you know, we have prices ranging from as low as $1 all the way to 120. So as I said, you don't need that much money to start. You know, typically you could spend $120 easily going out to buy food. Instead of doing that, you could actually put your money into buying your first share. Getting started. So after you add your money to your brokerage account, then, you know, I would say before you actually make your first investment, do some research. You could talk to your brokers, they could guide you along the process, or you could do that research on your own. Go to the stock exchange website, go to the different company's website, see what's working for you. And then after you do that research, then you could start placing your trades either through contacting your broker and they can place the trade for you. You could tell them, I want to buy this share. And then later on in line you can be like, you know what, I'm ready to sell the share. They will place that trade for you. Right. As well as we have our own online trading platform where you can take your trading into your own hands. It's called top, which is available 24 hours a day.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: What are the. Well, you segue into the question that I was going to wrap up with.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Because that's exactly what I was going to ask you.
How easy is it now? And some of the new features that the stock exchange brought online to assist people and they want to do their own thing. And you just explained that to us. Are there other initiatives in the pipeline that the country, the investor, the investor population should be looking out for from the stock exchange?
[00:17:05] Speaker C: Sure. So as you would have asked earlier, we are continuously wrapping up our, our knowledge base for the invested population. So we are continuously, you know, either we are having webinars on our own or we are partnering with the brokers themselves just to get that information out there. So it's really about letting people know how to get started and the benefits of investing. We want people to know that, you know, it is a way to build wealth. And it's not just to be afraid and think, you know, only wealth people should be able to invest. You know, the wealthy use investing as a tool to increase their wealth and, you know, we should be doing that as well. You know, it's not just for the 1% of the world, it should be for everybody.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's, we're going to have to leave our interview. It's sound advice and we've covered so much in this short space of time about the positives and some of the concerns, what people need to be aware of.
But it's about taking that first step and that probably sometimes is the most difficult decision. I mean, which stock to buy and how much they invest, those things you can be guided on. But taking that first step to actually get involved, the first step in many things and lots of things that you want to do that taking that first step is really the most difficult the persons who may be on the fence as to, well, should I or should I not?
What's your advice to them?
[00:18:37] Speaker C: My advice is, you know, get started. And if, as you said, it's, that's the hardest step. And, you know, if you're still a bit skeptical, you can give us, you could contact us. You know, as I said, we're on all socials. You could send us email messages in our social media inboxes. So we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, you know, we're on LinkedIn. And you go to the website Stockx Co TT, then you can have a conversation with us and, and we could guide you along the way on how to get started if we could help some of those fears you may have or correct some of those myths that maybe wrongly, may have wrongly heard before in the past.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to have to drop our interview here this morning, but it was definitely a really interesting discussion. And I want to thank you for being with us here this morning and giving us and giving our listeners this additional information. Everyone is trying to see how they can better themselves one way or the other. And I've never heard anyone say to me in all the discussions that I've had that they had too much money.
You can never have too much money. So any avenue to try and legitimately make more is something that people should take advantage of. Jay story, I want to thank you so much for being with us.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: And I'm sure the way forward as the stock exchange continues to engage our population, it was my pleasure having you here this morning as well.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability. The all new talk radio Freedom 106.5.
