This weekend, I was at the Seedly Personal Finance Festival 2025, at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre.
When I arrived around 10am in the morning, the atmosphere was buzzing. There thousands of attendees already in the hall, and more streaming in. In the hall, I could immediately hear lively sounds coming from all the booths, and many of them already had snaking queues of eager people waiting to learn and, of course, win attractive prizes.
I moderated a panel on what an investor’s playbook should look like in 2026. Here are 4 things I learned from moderating the discussion.
#1 Always Be Prepared For Volatility
Of course, I had to be prepared moderating a panel with industry, Oriano Lizza, Sales Trader CMC, Isaac Lim, Chief Market Strategist, Moomoo Singapore, and James Ooi, Chief Market Strategist, Tiger Brokers Singapore.
Since we were into the last quarter of the year, and the topic was focused on 2026, I had prepared mostly forward-looking questions to ask them.
But, as I probably should have expected, US President Donald Trump took to social media on Friday renewing threats of 100% trade tariffs on Chinese goods. The market swiftly tanked about 3% in a single day. And, much of the focus is now on the rest of 2025 rather than a playbook for 2026.
Thankfully, the panel was scheduled after lunch, and I had some time to rejig the questions to focus more on what investors should be doing for the rest of 2025!
#2 Investing Will Always Be Uncertain In The Short Term, But Much More Certain In The Long-Term
On the stage, one of the first questions I asked the panellists was how investors should be reacting to the latest trade tariff news on the two largest economies in the world.
I got a mostly unanimous response from the experts. Moomoo Singapore’s Isaac Lim felt that trade uncertainty is a known factor, and much of it is already baked into the current market. President Trump has also flipped-flopped a few times on this topic.
Nevertheless, it is something worth monitoring, especially if the situation worsens beyond what’s already expected.
#3 A Geographically Diversified Portfolio Might Help Mitigate Weakness In Certain Regions
Another question I had was that since the US and China are the world’s biggest economies, it’s hard to really diversify our exposure from them.
CMC’s Oriano Lizza said that while we don’t have to have a kneejerk reaction into selling our US and China exposure, we could consider the potential winners of an intensifying trade tensions between them.
We could look at Southeast Asian economies that may take on a greater role in trade relationships with the US. Singapore might also be interesting in this regard.
#4 DCA Might Not Always Be The Best Way To Invest
As someone who’s keenly interested in personal finance, one common advice I agree with is that investors should Dollar-Cost Average (DCA) into the stock market. This way, they don’t time the market and they don’t let emotions interfere with their investments.
I asked the panel a tricky question, whether they could play devil’s advocate, and discuss why it may not be the best solution for all investors.
Tiger Brokers’ James Ooi suggested that lump sum investing can be more rewarding, especially for more engaged investors.
In a bull run, you can lose out on a lot of returns if you have cash sitting on the sidelines. Research has also shown that lump sum investing tend to beat DCA, mainly because more money is compounding earlier.
For those worried about lump sum investing at the wrong time, time does heal some wounds. Across any approximately 10-year period for the broad US market, you would be profitable if you held on to the investment. This means that even if you invested at the worst time, at the top of the market before a crash, having a long-term investment horizon and holding it for at least 10 years, you will see a positive return on your investment.
At the same time, we should note that this is different to those who are investing a part of their monthly salaries, where they don’t really have any lump sum to invest at one go. DCA VS lump sum investing is a question for those who already have the cash to invest lump sum.
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