By Stella Goh – Market Data Analyst | 26 July 2018
The stock market could be one of the valuable investment tools. However, some people may be reluctant to invest in the stock market because the fear of possible significant losses occurred due to the uncertainty and riskiness of the stock market. The risks associated with the stock market is not fully understood. Wise investors will always seek to minimise their risk as much as possible without diluting the potential of rewards. Let us look at the 3 significant risks faced by investors and the ways to avoid it.
Market Risk
Market risks is a type of systematic risk that may cause investors to suffer losses due to the factors affecting the financial market’s overall performances, such as stock market bubbles, recession and so on. When there is a decline in the stock market, all the stocks would be affected regardless if they are large cap, small cap, mid-cap, growth stock, etc. This kind of risk cannot be diversified away, but investors can reduce the market risk by using tools such as portfolio construction. The examples, investors can protect themselves by investing in different types of securities such as stocks of both large or small companies, or bonds from both corporate and government issuers.
Business Risk
Business risk happens to the company when there is a new competition, or unexpected events occurred causing the company to suffer loss rather than earning a profit. This risk may occur due to several reasons such as disappointing earnings reports, change in leadership, outdated products, wrongdoing within the company, competitions, government regulations, overall economic climate, etc.
We frequently see such scenario, that when a specific company is facing any problematic event, the news will spread across to various media platforms. Therefore, the negative sentiment will be aroused and causes the shares price of the company drop. However, the other business with the same industry may not be affected and could be even profitable from it. To lower the exposure to the business risk, investors can invest in different companies categorised by sector.
Liquidity Risk
Liquidity risk arises when the investment is lack of buyer and seller in the open market. This type of risk will become higher when some investors wish to cash out their investment. Investors may find it hard to convert the assets into cash without incurred some loss due to widening spread on pricing.
Diversification in an investment portfolio can help investors to reduce the liquidity risk. Investors can diversify their portfolio that consists of investment that has higher liquidity such as top 30 KL Index stock with some lesser known potential growth companies stock or bonds. Therefore, investors should always keep enough for his liquid asset to cover their short-term obligations. The practice will allow them to sell their long-term investments when they have risen in value, not when they desperate for cash and may need to take a loss or limit their profit.
There is a way to evaluate the liquidity of an asset before purchase. Investors can observe the bid-ask spread of the stock over time. Illiquid assets will have a wider of bid-ask spread relative to other assets. The narrower the bid-ask spread and the higher of volume indicate that there is a higher of liquidity.
Conclusion
The common saying of high-risk, high return only reflects a gambler’s mindset. As a seasoned investor, one should minimise the risk and maximise the profit growth. To do so, each investor should spend the time to equip themselves with relevant knowledge and skills. Just like the teaching of Sun Tzu, “To Know One’s Own Strength And The Enemy’s Is The Sure Way To Victory”. Thus, maximum and continuous profits come from well versed with the market.
Good article. Thank you.