ShareSoc Director Spotlight – Ram Sachdev

What inspired you to join ShareSoc’s board and what motivates you to represent retail investors?

I am delighted to share my perspective.  

I joined the Board of ShareSoc after spending ten years as a professional investor, having sold my company in 2016. I was motivated by a genuine desire to share the knowledge and experience I have gained with those just starting their investment journeys. I believe that investing is a skill that empowers individuals to take control of their financial futures, and I have always admired ShareSoc’s commitment to expanding investment education and protecting investor rights. By contributing to this mission, I hope to help build a more confident, informed and engaged community of investors who can participate fully in the opportunities our markets offer. 

One of ShareSoc’s core missions is to spread investing skills and knowledge. What advice would you give to new investors just starting out?

My number one piece of advice is to take it slowly. In the age of “fin-fluencers” and instant trading apps, there is a temptation to jump into high-risk assets without doing the groundwork. Jumping in blindly is a recipe for disaster. A bad or unlucky outcome early on can leave a bitter taste and put someone off investing for their entire life. Investing education is the best hedge against risk. I always point people toward the ShareSoc Investor Academy to build that foundational knowledge before they commit significant capital. 

Secondly, understand your risk tolerance. Most people see red on a screen and feel fear, but you must teach yourself to view falling prices as opportunities, rather than wealth being lost. Recessions and market crashes are natural, cyclical events and they should be viewed as “sales” where the world’s best companies are suddenly available at a discount.  

Finally, embrace automation. I recommend setting up a fixed monthly contribution into a passive index tracker and then leaving it alone. Do not check it every day or even every week. Check it once every six months and let the power of compounding work its magic. 

How has the investing environment changed and what should investors be aware of?

The world is a fundamentally different place today than it was even five years ago. We are moving away from the era of hyper-globalisation and into a period of de-globalisation. Countries are now scrambling to secure their own supply chains and “friend-shore” their manufacturing. This shift, combined with great power competition, means we should expect more geopolitical volatility in the coming years. 

We are also transitioning from the “Cloud Era” into the Artificial Intelligence Era. This will likely be a “bumpy” ride. There are valid predictions that AI will radically disrupt the labour market, potentially reducing traditional roles for younger generations while simultaneously creating entirely new sectors that we cannot yet imagine. Investors need to be incredibly discerning. You must understand which companies are truly harnessing AI to drive productivity and which are merely being disrupted by it. Again this is where educating yourself and doing research is vital. ShareSoc’s education page is a good place to start. 

If you could change UK government policy on investing, what would you do?

In my personal opinion, to truly revitalise the UK’s financial standing and support retail investors, I would implement a simple 5 point plan: 

• Abolish Stamp Duty on UK Shares: It is nonsensical that we still charge a 0.5% tax on the purchase of domestic shares when our rivals like the USA and Germany do not. This “entry tax” actively discourages investment in British business and damages our market liquidity. 

• Reform Capital Gains Tax (CGT): I would scrap CGT entirely for transactions involving UK-listed companies, while maintaining a 20% rate for foreign shares. Our domestic companies are currently trading at a significant discount and we desperately need to incentivise capital to stay within the UK to boost our own economy rather than funding growth abroad. 

• Establish a UK Sovereign Wealth Fund: I would create a fund with a healthy budget derived from financial services taxes. I would put the UK’s best venture capitalists and fund managers in charge with a mandate to invest in our own indices and provide “patient capital” for the technologies of the future. This would signal confidence to global markets, push up domestic share values and build competitive UK companies in future industries. 

• Prevent the best UK companies from being bought: Weak capital markets and cheap UK companies also makes them tempting takeover targets for foreign rivals. Many of our best companies have been picked off, without any serious consideration of how that may affect either our markets or even our national security (for example the sale of ARM to Softbank). These sales have gradually stripped UK markets of high-growth technology firms, leaving them dominated by older industries like mining and energy, which makes them less dynamic and even less attractive to investors. I would devise a policy to prevent important companies being picked off. Instead I would encourage them to grow so that they can take on global competitors more effectively. 

• Compulsory Financial Education: Finally, I would make financial and investment education a compulsory part of the national curriculum. By removing the mystery and fear surrounding the stock market at a young age, we can ensure the next generation is equipped to build their own financial independence. This is a cause ShareSoc campaigns for tirelessly.