I ATTENDED a seminar, Investing In Uncertain Times - Managing Risk, last Saturday organised by the Securities Investors Association of Singapore (Sias).

It was a highly informative session, and I would like to thank Sias chief executive David Gerald and his team for putting it together. Mr Gerald applied his excellent public speaking and moderating skills with ease, and I admired the way he handled some difficult questions.

I gained a few observations from the session, which I would like to share:

First, there were a few hundred participants in the packed auditorium at 9am, ranging from teenagers to retirees. This is a good sign that Singaporeans have a thirst for investment knowledge, making us informed investors who go into markets with knowledge and not based on coffee-shop talk.

In terms of social graciousness though, we have much room to improve. Breakfast was served before the session, and it was interesting - or scary, to me - to see people grabbing the sandwiches, each taking three or four at a go. When a waiter approached the tables carrying trays of food, people started to congregate around him, and within seconds the trays were empty.

Second, there was a panel session at noon that was to end at 12.30pm. About a quarter of the audience left in hordes just before the session started, and in clear view of the panel. I can understand that people may be hungry, but they would have known when they signed up that the session was to end 30 minutes later. Given that the presenters were willing to give up their own time to speak at no cost on a weekend, it was only courteous for participants to stay and show their appreciation at the end of the session. We seriously need to bring back Singa, the courtesy lion, in a big way.

Lastly, there is still a need to educate investors that investing comes with risks and we as investors should take responsibility for our actions. There were participants who kept asking 'What and where is the protection for me?' on certain products, and one kept pressing Mr Gerald for his views of whether the Government should have intervened more on the Lehman Brothers saga.

It is our responsibility as investors to do our homework before we enter into a transaction, and it is not right to expect that every transaction is risk-free or that we should be fully risk-protected by the Government or banks. Seminars like this serve to reinforce this point, and I hope with time, we will become a mature and informed investor nation.

Ng Wee Chew (Ms)

This article was first published in The Straits Times.