This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 29, 2025 - January 4, 2026

Like it or not, investor demographics are changing, and along with it, the future of investing.

A big driver of this shift is the rise in young investors today. They invest differently from the older generation. They are digital natives with instant access to a trove of information online. They prioritise speed and convenience, often valuing a seamless user experience over cost. They invest globally with a growth mindset, favouring technology companies whose products and services are woven into their daily lives.

Moomoo Malaysia CEO Ivan Mok says the normalisation of “digital everything” has significantly changed the behaviour of young investors, who are generally defined as those below 30 years old, including Gen Zs born between 1997 and 2012.

“They are proactive and data-driven in identifying investment opportunities. They are tech-savvy and actively engage with the market at their fingertips. They are accustomed to fast, immediate information and a generation that relies more on social media platforms than on news portals,” he says.

With the proliferation of chatbots like ChatGPT, young investors are regularly conversing with artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in personal finance and investing, as it can process vast amount of data in real time and provide sophisticated insights, including sentiment analysis and technical patterns.

“Young investors, especially Gen Z, are not just a future consideration. They are actively shaping the present investment landscape. They bring entirely new expectations to the table and the industry must adapt to them,” he says.

Citing the World Economic Forum Global Retail Investor Outlook 2025, Mok adds that young investors naturally lean towards engaging in value-aligned investing and are keen to participate in global megatrends.

Webull Malaysia CEO Kenneth Chan says technology such as AI is changing how young investors approach the stock market.

“AI has been woven into our lives, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. People are just asking them more questions,” he says.

Such behaviour also explains that young investors are digitally savvy with an inclination towards technologies and tech companies, including Tesla, Netflix, Alphabet and Nvidia.

“They’ve grown up with all kinds of technologies. Their mindset is different. And they are hungry [for new knowledge and investment opportunities],” he says.

He adds that many young investors in their 20s, who only just started out in recent years, also went through the Covid-19 pandemic, and saw for themselves how one could suddenly lose one’s job and have their income source cut off.

“It was a wake-up call for them to accumulate wealth for emergency. Their seniors lost their jobs and might not have money at all. They understand the need to start building wealth early,” he says.

Young investors tend to be risk-takers as they did not go through a severe financial crisis, says Chuck Lim, chief business strategy officer at Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd.

Lim, who is 31, says he has not experienced a “real financial crisis” as an investor, such as the 2008 global financial crisis, 2000 dotcom bubble and 1997-98 Asia financial crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 was bad, but global markets recovered in a few months.

“To me, the pandemic was not a ‘real crisis’. Imagine, if you had bought Microsoft shares during the dotcom bust, how long do you think it would take you to break-even [from your losses]? Twenty years,” he says.

The “digital everything” phenomenon changed not only investor behaviour, but also how business operates and the value it provides to clients. For digital brokers, it means leveraging their technological capability to provide investors easy access to key foreign markets, including the US, Hong Kong and China.

In their bid to attract young investors, digital brokers have come up with solutions like fractional shares to help kick-start their journey with a lower investment layout. Sophisticated products, such as options trading, were subsequently introduced.

Digital brokers also offer investors a faster onboarding process and incorporate various data, tools and AI functions to assist them in conducting research and analysis. User experience on the mobile app is paramount.

Accessibility is the first step to unlocking the interest of young investors eager to participate in global megatrends and brands, says Mok.

“Accessing global markets was often a cumbersome process in the past. When we first offered Malaysian investors access to the US, Singapore and China markets, it was in response to the existing demand to invest globally. Young investors are particularly interested in brands and technologies they use in their daily life and strongly relate to.

“For instance, we use Google every day, hold multiple subscriptions for platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, and regularly hear about the success of Nvidia and other high-growth tech companies. Now, they can own a stake in these leading companies, which are typically concentrated [in] overseas [markets],” he says.

Mok says Malaysian young investors are becoming more sophisticated in their investment strategies and increasingly looking beyond the local bourse to explore new opportunities and diversify their portfolios.

He believes the future of investing lies in personalisation, intelligence and accessibility. “Platforms like ours are transforming how investors interact with markets by offering personalised solutions that are tailored to the individual’s financial goals and risk profile,” he says.

Moomoo Malaysia aims to provide AI-driven insights and data analytics to equip its users, including the younger ones, with the technology to help them make informed decisions, he says.

On top of accessibility, Webull focuses on another area that Chan believes is crucial to draw young investors into the stock market, which is shariah-compliant solutions and content provided in various languages, including Bahasa Melayu. He says Webull’s trading platform includes a shariah stock filter and shariah banking option that allows account fundings to be done through Islamic banks. All of its content can also be translated from English into Malay with Google Translate.

“We may be one of the few platforms with end-to-end Malay language content in the whole app. To me, this is very important,” says Chan, adding that account registration of bumiputera investors on Webull has increased by about 30% recently.

As the investment landscape evolves, value investing is no longer the mainstream advice provided by qualified experts to young investors who have clearly demonstrated a stronger preference for tech-based and growth companies. The focus is instead on helping them understand the companies and risks and their risk appetite.

Lim of Malacca Securities says, “When we give advice, we focus on making sure you are cognisant of the risks you’ll be taking on. If you really are a full risk-taker, by all means, please go for it.

“There are still young investors who prefer dividend counters or opt for the dollar cost averaging method. But this is rare based on our experience.”

One reason value investing continues to be so prevalent among older-generation investors, even until today, could be the lack of freely available information and analysis tools.

“Is it because people really liked more steady counters back then or is it because they didn’t have the information on and access to foreign companies? It is hard to tell,” Lim says.

Like it or not, young investors are surfing the internet and getting investment ideas from various sources, including the likes of WallStreetBets, a Reddit community for speculative stock and options trading known for YOLO (you only live once) trades, such as meme stocks. The community made its name during early 2021 by playing a pivotal role in the short squeeze of GameStop Corp.

Industry players point out that the changing investment landscape also has implications for the broader financial services industry, including Bursa Malaysia. A challenge is, perhaps, to attract and retain young investors with the listing of more technology-based and growth companies.

Alvin Vong, CEO of EquitiesTracker Holdings Bhd, observes that young investors are investing more overseas, mainly the US, as it is home to some of the world’s largest tech-based companies that have seen their share price rally in recent years.

“If you look at the MSCI World Index, it outperforms most of the single markets globally. A total of 60% to 70% of the index components consist of US stocks,” he says.

He says this has been an ongoing trend that has manifested itself more prominently in recent years, and that it is not limited only to Malaysia. This partly explains why the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been diversifying its revenue streams through other asset classes and businesses over the years.

According to its 2024 annual report, SGX generated revenues of S$1.2 billion, with only 27% derived from its “equities-cash” businesses, including equities trading and clearing, corporate actions and other and listing. Its other incomes are derived from “equities-derivatives” (27%), “currencies and commodities” (26%) and “platform and others” (20%).

“Six to seven years ago, most of SGX’s revenues came from trading activities of equities. But it went pretty hard on other products [and successfully diversified],” he says.

Industry experts believe the bourse and ecosystem players need a mindset shift in providing further support to tech-based firms and in helping them to get publicly listed.

Efforts along this line are being made. Recently, the Securities Commission Malaysia issued a consultation paper which, among other things, proposes to relax the positive operating cash flow requirement to encourage “high-growth and new-economy-type corporations” to enter the Main Market. Market observers believe the move is probably aimed at attracting start-ups, technology firms and renewable energy players to the local market.

Mok says there is a clear divergence when one looks at the type of companies that have been listed in the Malaysian and US markets in recent years. He says companies that draw the attention of younger investors typically reside within the technology and AI sectors. In the US, an industry report shows that in the third-quarter of the year (3Q2025), 44% of domestic initial public offerings (IPOs) originated from the technology, media and telecommunications sectors.

“IPOs are a significant draw, especially for young investors who are constantly seeking the ‘next big thing’. We are seeing a tale of two markets, each offering distinct value,” he says.

On the local front, Mok says the Malaysian market is vibrant and grounded in the real economy. For the first half of the year (1H2025), new listings were led by the consumer and industrial sectors, which accounted for more than 60% of the IPO funds raised.

Industry players cite 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings Bhd (KL:99SMART), Oriental Kopi Holdings Bhd (KL:KOPI) and Foodie Media Bhd (KL:FOODIE) as among names within the consumer sector that have successfully garnered interest from young investors locally.

All this means that while youngsters are increasingly investing overseas, they continue to participate actively in domestic equities as more well-known companies are listed on the local bourse.

“This shows robust domestic growth in fundamental industries that young investors also interact with as consumers [of products and services of those companies],” he says.

On top of that, Mok sees strong interest from young investors in local sectors aligned with global megatrends, a clear example being companies riding on the semiconductor and AI themes.

“We’ve seen a 52% jump in investor participation in these themes in the last six months, and the trading value for these sectors grew by 88% in 1H2025,” he observes. “It must be noted that the shift to global markets is not an abandonment of the local bourse. We see it as more of a portfolio rebalancing and opportune diversification. Young investors continue to maintain a strong base in domestic equities, which they value for stability, dividends and deeper level of local knowledge.”

Chan concurs, saying that relatively new investment themes that are riding the global AI trends have also emerged in the local market, such as data centres.

There is also the upcoming public listing of SkyeChip on the main market, a company mainly involved in integrated circuit (IC) design, specialising in silicon intellectual property, which could be licensed to its customers to be integrated into their chips. The company also designs and develops custom semiconductor chips, according to news reports.

In fact, plenty of value can be found within the local stock market if investors were to look across various sectors and not limit themselves to only tech stocks, says Vong.

“I honestly believe many companies on Bursa Malaysia are undervalued. The problem is that they don’t promote themselves enough or engage in investor relations in a meaningful way,” he thinks.

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