Investors have been confronted with unprecedented uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) conducted a survey of nearly 2,000 Canadians between March 30 and April 11, 2020 to further its understanding of the retail investor experience in Canada. Given the unique point in time, the OSC asked investors about their actions and attitudes related to investing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings will be used to inform further work to understand the impact of the pandemic on retail investors.
The study has several findings, including:
- Investment stress: 47% of investors are experiencing increased levels of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Holding investments: 85% of investors have held all of their investments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Selling investments: Investors with low financial knowledge were the most likely to sell 20 or more of their investments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Working with an advisor: 81% rated the advice they received from their advisor about investing during the COVID-19 pandemic positively.
- Do-it-yourself investors: 60% of self-directed investors do so in part because they enjoy managing their own investments.
- Difficulty in understanding investments: 68% of investors experience at least one challenge to understanding their investments.
- Financial knowledge: 61% of Canadian investors have medium financial knowledge, with 23% having high financial knowledge.
- Frauds and scams: 10% of investors believe that they are likely to lose money to an investment fraud or scam and only 2% reported that they have already lost money to a fraud or scam.
Read the research summaries: COVID-19 and the Investor Experience.
Read the full study results.