Shares? Bears? Futures? Reaching the everyday investor

The objective is to break some of the perceptions about investing - that it's too expensive, too risky or that it's only for the rich. Few South Africans, for example, know that you can invest in top shares on the JSE for as little as R300 per month. The event is free of charge and will cover topics such as ‘A beginners' guide to share investing', and ‘What are derivatives?' to ‘What are Exchange Traded Funds?' and more.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to visit a number of exhibitors, such as stockbrokers, financial media, financial information providers and advisors to listed companies.

“The JSE recognises that we have an active role to play in educating investors and have been involved with initiatives aimed at brokers and existing investors for a number of years,” comments Noah Greenhill, GM of marketing and business development at the JSE. “We realise that this is not enough - JSE Week is about reaching the average person with a spare bit of cash to invest who may know nothing about investing.”

In South Africa, approximately 200 000 people invest on the stock exchange - a stark comparison to Australia, where almost half of all trades are done by the countries 5, 7 million individual investors.

Promote

In order to promote the event, the JSE stepped into the social media sphere - new territory for the marketing team. This included establishing a Facebook presence and communicating with various Facebook groups and a viral email campaign.

Apart from using social media, the JSE planted promoters dressed in suits to picket in prime Sandton intersections - literally reaching the man on the street.

“Investing is no longer the preserve of the pin-striped suit brigade,” says Greenhill “We're trying to put the ‘fun into financial' by using innovative methods to speak to the South African consumer in media that they use.”