What the FMA makes of the explosion of new investors

Each week the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the astonishing rise of DIY investing since lockdown. Hosted by Frances Cook.<br /><br />This year has seen a spike in new investors. Since the first Covid-19 lockdown back in March, the Financial Markets Authority estimates 120,000 New Zealand investors have joined local online investing platforms. <br /><br />That's a seriously big jump for a small country like ours. For perspective, the big platforms Sharesies, InvestNow, and Hatch, now have about 250,000 clients between them. <br /><br />My first reaction to this news is absolute happiness. <br /><br />More Kiwis taking control of their money, and investing for their future, is awesome. <br /><br />I hope that even more people join the investing journey in the future. <br /><br />But with so many new investors coming in at the same time, there is the potential for things to go wrong. <br /><br />No worries though – let's talk about that, and make sure that Cooking the Books listeners are the ones ahead of the curve. <br /><br />For the latest podcast I talked to FMA CEO Rob Everett.<br /><br />We discussed why he thinks there's been such a spike in investors, the reason for caution, and best practice for new investors. <br /><br />&bull; If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/" rel="noopener">https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/</a> Instagram here <a href="https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/" rel="noopener">https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/</a> and Twitter here <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancesCook" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/FrancesCook</a>