C-TRADE Investment Clubs
In 1898 the first investment club was established in Texas, the idea of investment clubs was also spread out to United States of America. Investment Clubs are established by a group of people who are friends, relations, colleagues, or people who have a common goal or objective thus whatever other interests may bind its members. The purpose of coming together to form an Investment Club is to facilitate share investment and share ownership. The operation of Investment Clubs is to facilitate the investment of members’ money thus the lifeblood of Investment Clubs is members’ subscriptions. The Club provides a forum in which members can debate the respective merits of different companies and the wisdom of individual investment choices. It also allows members to pool their time and energy in researching different companies or identifying different opportunities. Membership of a club reduces the relative transaction costs that would normally be associated with share investment. Pooling of investments in a Club allows members enjoy the advantages of having a stake in a larger portfolio of shares than might be possible for many individual investors.
In Zimbabwe , C-TRADE has introduced Investment Clubs. The main aim of the Investment Clubs initiative is to bring traditional cooperative clubs to the stock market thereby enhancing financial inclusion while increasing activity on the capital market. Through trading of securities in groups, C-TRADE aims to help individuals grow their wealth and increase income at the click of a button as all this is done electronically. Investment clubs have more buying power as opposed to the case with individual investments thus more shares can be purchased at a given time which in turn increases the chance of getting quicker matches and hence, increasing investor satisfaction and in turn confidence in the whole capital market ecosystem.
The C-TRADE Investment Club works in such a manner that the account creation and administration function consist of a member administration module which caters for account creation, adding participants, removing participants and a club members’ register. The administration module also facilitates the capturing of KYC documents and each member to contribute their share of funds through giving the system direct access to their personal accounts funds. When the administrator places a BUY order instruction to the Exchange, funds will be deducted from each group member’s C-TRADE account. In case of insufficient funds in a member’s account, the order in question is declined. When a match is made, the system calculates how much of a stake each person has in the club and presents it in the club menu under ‘Investment clubs shareholding details. Apportionment of funds to club members according to what they have contributed through the use of basic ratios or percentage calculations. Likewise, in the event that a group member decides to leave the group; assuming that the group has holdings in various assets, the system will calculate how much stake holding one has and as soon as they leave, the relevant assets are deducted from the group’s portfolio. The investment clubs support various payment gateways that include EcoCash.
To start investing on the ZSE and FINSEC listed counters on the go, simply download the C-TRADE mobile app or dial *727# across all mobile networks. Alternatively visit ctrade.co.zw to register.
Econet subscribers— 08080277
Netone subscribers— 08010077
Live chat on web portal Email C-TRADE on ctrade@escrowgroup.org
WhatsApp 0737594405