Financial investing space has witnessed a tremendous transformation with the rise in digital-savvy investors, investing directly and looking to capitalize upon the wealth creation opportunities offered by capital markets. There is also an increasing interest from millennials. However, markets are inherently volatile by nature. In the short term, whether it is equity or commodity, prices react to various news flows and events which can lead to sharp price movements. Without the requisite knowledge and experience, investors can sometimes suffer large losses. Such experiences shape their perception and discourage them from taking direct investment decisions in the future.
In order to mitigate such negative experiences, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) investor education program – ‘Ab Stocks Main Invest Karna ETF Hai… Matlab Easy Hai’.
Abhijit Shah, Head- Marketing, Digital & Customer Experience, ICICI Prudential AMC says, “Our campaign, ETF Hai. Easy Hai., aims to educate investors about how ETF is a very simple way to invest in the stock market and how with ETFs, investors can aim to grow wealth through exposure to entire stock markets or specific segments of the market.”
He further adds, “As a part of our investor education initiative, this campaign helps spread the message about the ease of investing through ETF. It combines the features and potential benefits of stocks and mutual funds, or even bonds. By investing in ETF, one can get market-linked returns with no additional stress of security selection or market timing. Just like stocks, ETFs are listed on stock exchanges and can be traded (bought or sold) at any time during market hours through a demat account. Furthermore, it is one of the cheapest ways to take exposure to equities. One can carry out the buy/sell activity even through a mobile phone. Thus, even for a first-time investor, ETF packs a punch by way of providing diversified exposure to equities in a low-cost, convenient, and relatively low-risk manner, when compared to direct investing.”
Taking an analogy from various instances during the day at work, the campaign describes the ease of investing via ETF. The ETF campaign is spread across media platforms such as TV, Digital, Social, Performance, and new-age platforms like OTT to spread the awareness as ICICI Prudential expects this segment to grow bigger in 2022 and onwards.
In India, ETF trade has almost doubled in just one year, going from INR 1.54 lakh crore at FY21 beginning to INR 2.9 lakh crore at FY21 end.
