When asked about what he does for a living, local guy Lloyd Bazar’s answer is straightforward: “I teach Filipinos how to handle their money if they want to make it financially.”
As an active investor and stock trader, Bazar uses several digital platforms to share the insights and strategies he’s developed over the years so that others can follow his footsteps.
From social networks such as YouTube to investment-focused platforms like eToro, Bazar is helping thousands of individuals who are learning how to be better investors. It’s no accident that his social media handle, and the title of the events and seminars he hosts around the Philippines, is “Financial Freedom 101.”
Most importantly, he ensures that all insights and strategies that others learn from him are the best practices of investing and trading.
“I introduce investing, and especially responsible investing, to Filipinos,” he added.
Teaching through videos
Promoting the importance of investments to a Filipino audience is a tall order, as even Bazar admits that investing “isn’t that popular in the Philippines.” Data from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) shows that there are only one million stock market accounts in the country, less than one percent of the total population. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there are one million investors in the country, as some of them may own more than one account.
When asked about the reasons behind this low adoption, Bazar highlights one factor: “What I really think the cause is, is the lack of education, especially from parents to their kids as well as from schools.”
It’s a shortcoming he’s aiming to address through his YouTube channel, where he has gained over 20,000 subscribers. Bazar has uploaded over 200 videos and livestreams talking about the basics of investing as well as his insights about the PSE and international financial markets, which have amassed a total of over 900,000 views.
“I run a YouTube channel making videos that teach newbie traders my strategy in trading,” he shares. “Also, aside from the stock market, I teach Filipinos how to attain financial freedom through financial literacy through my YouTube channel and through seminars.”
These seminars extend the discussions in his YouTube videos and livestreams offline, as Bazar hosts half-day sessions around the country where he discusses both basic and advanced investment strategies. Some of these events even offer free admission, encouraging all types of people to attend and be exposed to investing.
Letting others copy
While Bazar has become one of the go-to names for advice about the PSE, he has also expanded the scope of his investment portfolio by looking into foreign stock markets. Aside from allowing him to diversify his investments, he realized that going beyond the PSE’s offerings have presented much larger opportunities to maximize his capital.
“When I started with eToro and started researching about the international market, I realized I was trading in a [relatively] small market,” said Bazar.
Through eToro, Bazar is now able to invest in stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, and other types of assets, all of which are based in other countries. This made Bazar refine and improve his trading strategies as he now has a much larger playing field for his analyses. The bigger volumes of these markets also allow him to better study its movements.
Investing in the platform has also given Bazar a more direct way to help others with their financial journeys. With his monthly investment gains being consistent, other eToro users have begun applying his trading strategy to their own portfolios through the platform’s copy trading feature. Whenever Bazar buys or sells assets, the same trade is executed on a copier’s portfolio, allowing them to fully benefit from Bazar’s strategy even if they’re new to investing.
“Information is the biggest key to the market,” he added. “Having easier access to what the good traders’ ideas are and having people to ask help from will be big for trading newbies.”
Today, Bazar is a “Popular Investor” in the platform, which means that he earns extra income from the users who are copy trading him. As of the time of writing, Bazar has over 400 copiers who have allotted a total of over $100,000 to copy his trading strategy, the most out of any Philippines-based Popular Investors on the platform.
Making investing mainstream
Whether it’s through making informative videos on YouTube or letting others copy his trading strategy in eToro, Bazar hopes that he inspires more and more Filipinos to get into the habit of investing their hard-earned money. He tells people who may be skeptical about investments or the stock market to be more open-minded with the types of opportunities these can provide.
“Keep an open mind. There are already thousands of people earning in the market, so it is doable,” said Bazar.
More importantly, he wants to tell Filipinos that they should be open to taking risks with their money in order to grow it. While many of his investments are risky and can lead to losses of capital, Bazar recommends his fellow Filipinos to start investing as soon as possible so they can reap more benefits in the long run.
“Take a risk and try it,” he urged. “You will always hear this from successful people: If you don’t take risks, you won’t be going anywhere.”
