- 5 minutes ago
Broker outages in Malaysia during March didn’t just disrupt trades, they exposed the strain on legacy systems in a market that now moves in real time.
At the same time, platforms like Moomoo are gaining ground with low-cost access, faster onboarding, and the ability to trade across global markets from a single app.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks with Isaac Lim, Chief Market Strategist, Moomoo Southeast Asia, on what this new trading landscape means for investors in Malaysia and the region.
At the same time, platforms like Moomoo are gaining ground with low-cost access, faster onboarding, and the ability to trade across global markets from a single app.
Tehmina Kaoosji speaks with Isaac Lim, Chief Market Strategist, Moomoo Southeast Asia, on what this new trading landscape means for investors in Malaysia and the region.
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to Nyaga Spotlight with me Tamina Kaosji. Nyaga Spotlight takes us through
00:12the week in economic analysis and future affairs. So today on analysis our spotlight is on trading
00:182.0 and digital trading platforms. Now Malaysia's trading system got a wake-up call all of last
00:25month. Several disruptions actually they were not just technical glitches they also expose how much
00:31of our brokerage infrastructure is still built for a slower desktop era market. Meanwhile digital
00:37trading platforms like Moomoo are gaining ground across the region. So this isn't only about new
00:44platforms coming in it's also about ensuring the rest of the system can keep up and what that means
00:49for how and where Malaysians will be choosing to invest next. Joining me on the show today to
00:56discuss this growing market is Isaac Lipp, Chief Market Strategist for Moomoo Southeast Asia. Isaac
01:03a very good morning to you. How are you doing today? Morning to you Tamina. Thank you for having me
01:06in
01:06this wonderful studio. Very good. All right amazing. So Isaac you're coming in at a very crucial time
01:12when there's a lot of things happening in the market both globally as well as regionally
01:17and now hopefully looking locally retail investors today they're expecting speed, they're expecting
01:23agility, they're also expecting transparency and low costs. That is a lot to balance. Tell us a little
01:30bit about how Moomoo's been doing and your thoughts on this before we move into the discussion proper.
01:36Well you know thanks for having me here. I think exactly what you're pointing out it's a lot to digest.
01:41In fact it's a very big ask. You know generally a lot of retail investors they want low cost, they
01:49want
01:49transparency, they want execution and the beauty of it is that you know that is actually the heart of what
01:57we do at Moomoo. It sounds a bit cliche right but really when you log on to the Moomoo app,
02:04when you use a
02:04Moomoo platform, the first thing that you see is not so much being blasted recommendations, stock
02:12recommendations, that kind of thing. The first thing that you see is really just your positions.
02:16Just give you a quick health take, spot check on your position, how are your positions doing
02:21overnight and so once you have that snapshot you're ready to meet the investing day ahead.
02:26Right now you can go into the markets, you can start looking for news and in fact our news is
02:31not
02:32our news is not something that we just blindly generate in-house. I think a lot of our users can
02:38attest to the fact that our news comes from various reputable channels. We pull a lot of
02:44economic news data from the likes of Bloomberg, Refinitiv. So these are the kind of things that you know
02:53we give to our clients for free. All of it sounds like it's really so much in line with everything
03:00which the consumer today wants because when you talked about how the news collation is done across
03:05verified platforms, that in itself would be such a boon rather than you know an everyday investor
03:10having to go through let's say five to ten different websites and then decide what to read best and when.
03:16Let's talk about how you're feeling the retail sentiment is going with regards to of course the retail
03:21participation and this is not something which only began because of the pandemics and the lockdowns
03:27and people being online a lot more right? Yeah so I think a lot of it actually goes back to
03:35the age of digitalization when you know many people across the region whether you are wealthy,
03:42middle-income or low-income, you actually have access to a digital phone right? You have access to
03:47a smartphone, your internet connection is there and by doing so this actually allows retail investors
03:54to have access to the markets basically anytime right? So as long as you're carrying a smart device,
04:00tablet phone, you have access to the markets and I think that's what Moomoo we're trying to bring to
04:05people. We're trying to democratize the access to the financial markets. No longer is financial markets a
04:10scary word where people are unknown, they don't know what to do right but over there in Moomoo we
04:15actually have a whole plethora of things right? Research, we have education, we have news, we have data
04:23that we give to our users and I think that is why you know people realize that hey investing is
04:29not
04:29something that is scary, it's something that I can easily access now and we see a bigger take-up of
04:35retail actually starting to enter the markets. Incredible because also some data that we have
04:41from Bursa Malaysia is showing us that for the Malaysian market we had roughly around 320 odd K
04:50trading accounts and that was in 2024. In 2025 that number was almost cresting to 400,000 and data
04:58shows that around 80% of these new accounts were actually opened across digital platforms so I think
05:04those are some very strong signs there. Let's now move into platform versus infrastructure gaps Isaac.
05:10So the other issue is of course brokerage platforms are showing their age a little bit and that has
05:17been a bit of an issue for Malaysian traders especially in the past month. So what are some of the
05:23biggest
05:23structural differences between the old school and well the new school? Great question that you actually
05:30brought up Tamina. I think a lot of what we see in the old system just a quick side fact
05:38right I actually
05:38started my career as a brokerage as an in-house dealer so I sort of came from the old system.
05:44So you
05:44transitioned as well? Yes so I sort of saw the entire evolution and I think a lot of it started
05:50when you
05:50know when legacy platforms they have they actually tend to outsource a lot of their infrastructure the
05:58support to external vendors. No harm in that because you actually allow for more focus on building out
06:05your own products your own platform that kind of thing but the issue with that is you know when there
06:10is a downtime there is sort of there's sort of a hiccup people actually end up having to scramble hey
06:17let me reach out to my vendor let me reach out to the platform the company that helped me white
06:21label
06:21this trading platform that I'm building on and that takes a bit of a turnaround time there's a lack of
06:27response what we actually do here at Moomoo is that a lot of our infrastructure is built in-house from
06:33the ground up so if there's any time that that something goes wrong in the event that something
06:39goes wrong we actually do have our entire software team infrastructure team that is on standby to
06:45immediately come in and try to resolve the crisis right so I'm I'm not pointing fingers at anybody but
06:52I think across the board right there will always be hiccups but it's how quickly the company can
06:58actually come to deal and resolve this crisis that really matters to the clients our money is at stake
07:03yes everyone's money is at stake indeed and I think it's more and more about ensuring that it's a closed
07:08system rather than an open one which is also vulnerable to these breakdowns as well now let's look
07:14at cost democratization versus sustainability so Moomoo also does state explicitly that you know you're
07:21associated often with low cost or zero commission trading how does one balance that when it comes to
07:27the business model I'm interested so of course when we first enter the markets you know we're associated
07:33with low cost but I think over time both Malaysian investors the markets have shown a sort of a growth
07:40a
07:40sort of maturity right and I would really hope for Moomoo to move away from this low cost imagery to
07:46one
07:46that um we are actually in a long-term partnership with our clients with our users uh a lot of
07:53a lot
07:54of this uh low cost low cost is one thing right but sure end of the day you want your
07:58clients to be able
07:59to come back to you um your lifetime value you want to promote that client stickiness because um having
08:06that trustworthy long-term stable relationship is definitely something better than you know your
08:11low cost fly-by-night system and over here at Moomoo is not just the cost factor we look at
08:17it is also the kind of research and and data that we give to you and what we're actually trying
08:23to do
08:24here in Malaysia and across the region is that we are actually also building out an education arm right
08:30so we provide a lot of free education um specifically targeting beginners and intermediate investors so
08:37it doesn't really matter you know if you're entirely new or you're coming in with a bit of knowledge
08:42at least you know that Moomoo has this um catalog of uh teaching uh materials that you can actually
08:48pick up this very vibrant archive of sorts exactly um uh would you be able to share anything with us
08:53about
08:54what the age demographic is looking like uh from Moomoo's uh back-end data about who the um signups
09:01are and who the most active users are are we looking at a younger market now isaac so um i
09:06well i don't
09:07have the specific numbers but i can tell you that yes we are indeed looking at a younger market gen
09:12z yeah
09:14are we still looking at millennials or gen x we are it's actually between gen z to to to millennials
09:20um
09:21uh and then of course we are hoping to also um target the gen gen x people a bit older
09:27uh because
09:28you know that's where we also want them to to start trading with us um but at the same time
09:32they're
09:33stuck within their their systems they have their comfort zones right exactly um the trouble with um
09:39the trouble with the gen z is that you know um they're still a bit young right so i think
09:44education takes
09:45more of uh importance or more of a precedence for them so that's where we want the education to come
09:50in
09:50for the millennials um it's not so much about education it's more about hey how can we partner
09:56with you how can moomoo partner with our users to actually start building your wealth right in in
10:02in an era in a market where volatile and inflation is rampant even though we're on a rate cutting cycle
10:09but we can see that you know with all these concerns about inflation pressures coming in you know how do
10:14you build your wealth that can actually give you a bit more of a comfortable future going forward i
10:20think that's the kind of question that at moomoo we want to try to help our users answer and that
10:26definitely i think resonates with um investors particularly the younger ones yes given that
10:30everyone's also looking for multiple income streams exactly well thanks very much isaac for the
10:35conversation in so far well don't go anywhere we'll be right back with the rest of this conversation on
10:39trading 2.0 digital platforms and beyond stay tuned
11:00welcome back to nyaga spotlight with me tamina khasji so going straight back into the conversation
11:04on trading 2.0 with isaac limb chief market strategist with moomoo southeast asia so isaac
11:10digging a little bit deeper now let's go into behavioral shifts and over trading uh now there's
11:16also some growing concern globally about the um inherently well addictive nature of platforms which
11:23also use gamified elements and also the fact that uh there may be risks of over trading on digital
11:30related platforms so how does moomo actually approach user engagement while at the same time
11:35encouraging people to um be in control of their trading behaviors and patterns too um you know um we
11:43are also actually to add on to your point of gamification we are actually also seeing the rise of
11:48prediction markets yes so that's quite a big thing calci and etc especially in the past two and a half
11:53months only yes it's it's quite um it's really an area of the market that has been picking up um
11:59the
11:59professionals will say we're using this to judge market sentiment um the the the the the the wild
12:07wild west culture say we're using this to gamble and and i think um everything in life there's risk
12:13right um whether we're investing in the markets um there's also an entire uh degree of risk that you
12:20want to take on or you or you do not wish to take on and and i think um investors
12:25have to come to
12:26accept the fact that when you're investing any platform moomoo or any of our competitors platform
12:32you are taking on a bit of risk um but what we try to do and moomoo as i mentioned
12:37you know we are
12:37trying to make sure that you're coming in with a responsible um responsible idea where you are already
12:44educated and if you're not educated at moomoo we do our best to educate you and level up your
12:50financial literacy so while everything has risk i think the only thing that um the only time when
12:57it really becomes a gamble is when you hear when an investor here oh my cousin said this or my
13:02friend
13:03said this you know you i want to buy into this because of hearsay and i think that's really dangerous
13:07so we want our investors we want our users to be to be people that make educated decisions right um
13:14while taking on risk and that's really how we we approach the markets it's not so much about gambling
13:20understood fantastic thanks for that so now let's look at uh spreading the conversation to looking at
13:26the regional competitiveness and also malaysia's position so some initial thoughts on that uh what
13:31have you been seeing from the markets in the past uh five six months or so so i mean of
13:37course as we
13:37entered um as we entered 2026 you know people the narrative was that a lot of investors are concerned
13:44that we're seeing huge equity outflows out of the malaysian markets right but um 2026 story has really
13:51flipped that that idea on its head uh what we are seeing is that there is a general loss in
13:56confidence
13:57in the u.s and in the u.s markets by extension and we are also seeing investors start to
14:03start to bring
14:03their equity investments to other geographical regions so you have the european region um fun fact
14:11ever since the breakout of the middle east crisis uh the best performing about five weeks and counting
14:18now five weeks and counting exactly the best performing markets were actually the southeast asian markets so
14:23you have your singapore sti you have your malaysia klci and then of course following very closely is
14:29your thailand set 50. so you can you can see that you know um investors globally not just in malaysia
14:35are starting to be a bit more aware and trying to rotate their capital out of u.s and diversifying
14:42it
14:42so i think from a global perspective just giving a bit of flavor you know i think malaysia
14:48as part of this region stands a very good chance of growth moving forward as long as there's going
14:53to be huge volatility in the global market which is a fascinating thing about markets in general
14:57right um so also the fact that malaysia is so highly digitalized definitely places us in a good
15:03position when it comes to competitiveness for southeast asia um let's look um further beyond
15:09as you were mentioning of course there's been a lot of uh global market access and capital flows um let's
15:15look a little bit more towards um hong kong and other markets what kind of uh predictions or perhaps
15:21uh educated outcomes are you predicting for maybe q3 q4 great question i wish i had a crystal ball
15:28through the head but um again in line of um in the spirit of making very educated uh deductions uh
15:34we
15:35from for me i think the while the middle east crisis is sort of taking the headlines now let's not
15:41forget
15:41that the two big elephants in the room is still that very strained tension relationship between us and china
15:48so a lot of what's going to happen in the chinese equity markets will depend on two things one will
15:54be how the trade tariffs and the trade policies between us and china play out so that will be down
15:59to president trump and president see their next meeting if it happens at all um that's the first
16:04thing the second thing will be you know the chinese market is um is is in a sort of a
16:10quagmire in
16:10the sense that they really need to depend on um stimulus and injection from the chinese government
16:16government so i think investors should also watch out for that um that if you really want to jump
16:21back in into the chinese markets these are the two factors to watch out for um but by and large
16:26i really
16:27do think that um bringing it back to the home market i still think that you know this is where
16:31mumu
16:32thinks and mumu finds it worth investing um malaysia's um equity market is not um it's not something that
16:40is newborn is it is actually quite mature you guys have a very um wide range of equities um especially
16:47you know in light of the middle east crisis um malaysia's um oil and gas industry um actually has been
16:54performing very very well with lower volatility compared to other regions so i think from an investment
17:00perspective um if you want some sort of exposure to the oil and gas industry but yet coming in at
17:06a
17:06lower volatility then malaysia is definitely your choice markets so i think there is a part to play
17:11in the greater picture of investing in this environment yeah thanks for the insights isaac now it's also been
17:17interesting because the securities commission in malaysia so they have actually um quoted that our
17:22digital investment management aum has actually um gone up to uh 1.9 billion in 2024 which is basically
17:31a 500 time growth since that arm was launched in 2018. now also as we're reaching a little bit more
17:38of a maturity when it comes to it being almost 10 years since people were able to gain access to
17:44digital
17:45platforms and global market access would you say there is some kind of a structural shift in how
17:51malaysian and regional investors are allocating capital away from their local domestic markets
17:59not because they're ignoring them but because they're also seeing ripe opportunities in some regional
18:04and global trades absolutely right tamina i think um this is definitely a structural shift it's not
18:10something that um that is cyclical um one point that i really like that you brought up is that there's
18:15a
18:16maturing of the markets it shows that the investors mindset here in malaysia is um starting to think
18:22outside the local equities market um having said that it's also more of a look you know cost of living
18:29is going up if i don't invest if i don't grow the salary that i get or if i don't
18:34find a second stream of
18:35income how am i going to maintain my quality of life how am i going to provide for my family
18:41so i think
18:42these two factors combined you know are questions that investors are increasingly starting to ask
18:47themselves and in this day and age i think that the trend of retail trading and and the volume that
18:53they contribute to the market is only going to grow because it's not so much of uh uh should i
18:58invest or
18:59should i save the money it's uh i have to invest in order to grow my money right and how
19:04can i do it in a safe
19:05educated manner without gambling it away how and where and when exactly yeah it's no longer a why
19:11correct right so that's definitely a huge perceptual shift um now easing out and landing the conversation
19:17uh let's talk a little about the next frontier for retail investing um of course crystal balls aside
19:24but looking forward to the next three to five years isaac what would you say would be the definition of
19:30a
19:30winning trading platform for our extremely vibrant southeast asian region um and then i would like
19:37to bring you back to your very first statement of this uh right segment um which is you know cost
19:43transparency and uh ease of um ease of ease of excess um it used to be low cost right because
19:51i mean of
19:51course when you're investing you're trading you want to keep your cost low so that you can maximize your
19:56returns but cost in this day and age where technology makes things cheaper is not going to be the sole
20:02defining um factor you need uh quality education you need quality research right um but at the same time
20:10having said that what's stopping you example if you're my client if i were to give you quality research
20:15say that i pull from morningstar bloomberg refinative of all of which we actually have on the bloom
20:21uh on the mumu platform right what's not what's not stopping you from taking this data and going to
20:27trade on another platform right fair enough yeah so of course then that brings me to my third factor
20:33which is the ease of having everything at your fingertips which is um you know with mumu you can
20:39manage your investments you can do your short-term trading um we have um we are we're looking to increase
20:45more products to give to our malaysian users as the maturity of our malaysian users the knowledge
20:51starts to to to upgrade and grow i think that's when they're ready for it we'll start to push it
20:56out
20:56to them so that you know you can actually start properly building your portfolio on one app mumu
21:03so honestly it's going to be about the super app of the near future right all right yeah so i
21:10i wouldn't
21:10really call it a super app um but um yeah essentially that that that is the idea where
21:15a one-stop shop in one-stop shop that's right i think there's definitely um there's digital
21:19exhaustion but at the same time there's most likely going to be even more growing interest as the
21:25younger gen z's also mature into investment age and having the disposable income in fact you know
21:31termina i would go further to say since you mentioned three to five years earlier all right i
21:35would go further to say that in the future um we while we are seeing the gen z's starting to
21:41ask us
21:42hey can i start investing and we tell them no actually you're a bit too young right you start
21:46with paper trade first i think on the flip side um the the millennials that are now entering parenthood
21:52right you want to go one step further to think about not just legacy planning but how can you teach
21:58financial literacy absolutely to to your to your to your children and i think that sets them up for
22:04an even better future than up the way our parents have have have left left left it for us so
22:10i think
22:10that is the that's the direction i see the growth of the retail segment in and i think that's the
22:15future that we should try to build towards isaac thank you so much for your insights on today's show
22:19well that's all we have time for today on nyaga spotlight cheaper access faster platforms they might be
22:25opening the door but they also raise new questions about risk behavior and who will be benefiting and
22:30what matters now is whether this builds a more informed investor base or just a faster more crowded
22:35market we'll see you next week on nyaga spotlight with more business analysis and insights i'm tamina
22:40carl street signing off for now
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