The challenging market conditions experienced in 2022 saw SMSF trustees reduce their equity trading activity, share trading platform Ausiex has revealed.
As result of analysis performed on client transactions, Ausiex found SMSF investors took a more conservative stance in relation to their trading activity in general and when compared to their non-SMSF peers.
“SMSF investors, compared with non-SMSF counterparts, ‘battened down the hatches’ as trading volumes fell to a greater extent,” it noted.
The study also indicated SMSF trustees receiving advice took a slightly more measured approach to market headwinds, with the cohort maintaining some acquisition activity with their buy/sell ratio only falling by 2 per cent.
By contrast, advised non-SMSF accounts experienced a 7 per cent reduction in their annualised buy/sell ratio when compared to their 2021 activity.
Further, the reaction to the adverse stock market conditions of 2021 by SMSF trustees using a financial adviser was also less severe than their self-directed counterparts.
“For advised SMSFs, approximately 12.6 per cent fewer accounts traded overall year on year, compared with 16.2 per cent decline for self-directed SMSFs, but the number of accounts selling fell year on year,” the share trading platform service stated.
The average size of the trades undertaken by advised SMSFs also reflected a more conservative investing stance recorded at $23,065 in 2022, while the average size of sell trades increased for this client group across the same period. The volume of trades processed for this cohort also dropped over the previous year.
Contrary to the generally cautious approach to stock trades taken by the majority of SMSF trustees, the study did identify one demographic that reflected a more optimistic approach to equity transactions in 2022.
“Looking at trading by generation for advised SMSFs, advised millennials were the only cohort to increase their trading volume year on year, with much of the increase skewed towards the buy side, suggesting this generation, with the highest buy/sell ratio of all, may have seen past the challenging conditions to take the opportunity to buy into quality assets,” Ausiex noted.
