What Actually Stopped You From Investing
SGX is removing the friction that stopped you from investing
Singapore blue chips were the plan. The same familiar names that everyone talks about but few actually own. Buy them when the savings account looked healthy enough. The savings account looked healthy. The buy order never happened. Sometimes the portfolio never got started at all.
US stocks could wait until the tax forms made sense. They never made sense.
Every year, the prices moved. The portfolio stayed the same. The explanation was always personal. Procrastination. Fear. Poor discipline. The December personal financial review always ended the same way.
But what if it was not you?
What if the problem was never motivation? What if it was friction?
The Market Singapore Was Losing
For years, Singapore Exchange struggled to get strong retail interest into Singapore shares. Trading volumes stayed low. Valuations stagnated. Companies that could have listed here went to Hong Kong or New York instead. Market participants called it boring. Nothing exciting happens here.
The standard explanation blamed market structure, regulatory burden, or the lack of exciting tech IPOs. All true. But incomplete.
The deeper problem was behavioral.
Many Singapore investors wanted to participate. They had the money. They had the intention. But the path between intention and action was blocked.
Consider the numbers. In 2024, SGX saw only a handful of new listings, raising tens of millions combined. 2023 was similar. Companies were not choosing Singapore.
Meanwhile, retail participation remained stuck. Not because Singaporeans lacked interest in investing. Because the friction made it easier to do nothing.
The Friction You Did Not Notice
Richard Thaler, the behavioral economist who won the Nobel Prize, has a term for this. He calls it sludge.
Sludge is friction that stops you from doing what you already want to do. It is not a nudge pushing you toward a choice. It is a barrier blocking a choice you already made.
Think about what stood between you and Singapore blue chips.
Board lot size used to be 100 shares. A blue chip at S$15 means S$1,500 minimum just to start. For a young investor with S$500 to deploy, that is not a decision. That is a wall.
Think about what stood between you and US tech stocks.
You wanted Nasdaq exposure. The big US tech names. But the path required a US brokerage account. Tax reporting. Currency conversion. W-8BEN forms. The intention was there. The channel was blocked.
Every barrier is a hidden tax on your behavior. You were paying these taxes without realizing it.
What SGX Finally Understood
In August 2024, MAS formed the Equities Market Review Group. Over 2025, they rolled out recommendations. In November 2025, MAS announced the completion of the review and released the final report.
The market has already started responding. IPOs in 2025 raised over S$2 billion by November, the strongest showing since 2019.
The measures looked like market structure reforms. They were. But underneath, something else was happening.
SGX stopped asking how do we convince people to invest?
They started asking what is stopping people who already want to invest?
That is a behavioral economics question. This is the principle SGX is now applying. And the answers changed everything.
Board lot size is set to drop from 100 units to 10 units for stocks above S$10.
Before it took S$1,500 to buy one lot of a blue chip. After the changes it will be S$150.
The barrier will not shrink. It will disappear.
Broker custody reforms are planned, with SGX expected to roll them out from 2026 onwards.
Before it required one to buy whole shares only and make every decision yourself. Fractional SGX shares become possible. Robo-advisors will be able to hold individual Singapore stocks.
The decision fatigue starts to lift.
SGX-Nasdaq dual-listing bridge coming mid-2026.
Before you had to open a US brokerage, handle US tax forms, and convert currency. When companies choose to dual-list, you can buy them on SGX. No US brokerage needed for those stocks.
The operational complexity collapses.
Enhanced research coverage for small and mid-caps through the GEMS scheme.
Before coverage was thin. Many of these stocks stayed invisible. Now there are more analyst reports. More visibility.
The ambiguity that kept you away starts to clear.
The Insight Behind the Reforms
Thaler’s most famous line is “If you want to get people to do something, make it easy.”
SGX finally internalized this. They realized they were not losing to Hong Kong. They were not losing to Nasdaq. They were losing to friction.
Forms were votes against action. Unfamiliar platforms were reasons to wait. High minimums were permission to procrastinate.
The Review Group called their work “market structure reform.” What they actually did was choice architecture.
They did not tell you what to invest in. They are removing the sludge that made investing hard.
Nobody is forcing you to buy blue chips or access Nasdaq. But if you want to act, the path is opening.
Barriers That Still Exist
Two remain.
Access to more US names. The Nasdaq bridge brings dual-listed companies. But what about the stocks Singaporeans already want? The big tech names. The index ETFs. Imagine trading them through SGX during Singapore hours instead of staying up past midnight.
SGX and financial institutions could list structured products or create OTC versions on these underlyings. These include options and hedging tools. Liquidity could follow the sun instead of forcing you to follow New York.
The demand exists. The friction kills it.
European markets. The Nasdaq bridge is coming. It is great for US tech. But when Singaporeans say “international diversification,” they usually mean American. The big US names dominate conversation here. More US news coverage. More US stock discussion at dinner tables.
Europe feels further away even though it is not. European blue chips remain harder to access than they should be. This is availability bias. What gets talked about gets bought. What stays invisible stays unbought.
True diversification means more than one foreign market. SGX could build bridges to London and European exchanges. Right now, going global still means going American. SGX is removing the obvious friction. The less obvious friction remains.
What This Means For You
SGX recognized what was stopping you and they are removing it.
That S$1,500 minimum? Going away. US access? Being simplified. Small and mid-cap stocks with thin coverage? Getting visibility.
This is no longer about whether you should invest.
It is about whether you will notice that the path is opening.
This week, make a list of investments you told yourself you would make but never did. For each one, ask yourself whether the barrier was real or was it friction. Then check if the barrier still exists.
You may find that half of your “someday” list is now possible today.
The friction was invisible. It felt like personal failure. It was not. It was design.
Now the design is changing. The barriers are going. The excuse will too.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making investment decisions.