In a country where the median age is only 24 years old, financial literacy may still well be at its infancy stage in the Philippines. Traditional institutions still continuously educate their consumers on how to utilize and maximize financial products such as investing in time deposits, paying credit card bills on time, taking care of their credit history and so on.
At the other end of this spectrum is more active engagement on using financial products: online trading. There is only a minority of the population who are versed in the stock markets and currency trading, and many of those who dabble into it, give up because of the lack of knowledge and skills in navigating what seems to be a very complex financial activity. This is something we do not learn in kindergarten, after all.
This is a challenge SmarTrade is driven to overcome as it puts majority of its efforts in helping people understand how they can be successful in online trading.
“Our goal is to build a fair and transparent trading community and at the same time, to uplift and innovate financial education in the country by giving free learning sessions for everyone,” said SmarTrade president Joyce Mayo.
SmarTrade recently organized “Strategy or Tragedy: The Truth and Myths about Trading and Investment”, a one-day seminar at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City. The event was joined by more than 300 participants who were interested to improve their trading skills through the lecture series given by experts from different financial institutions.