Make investing automatic, not emotional

Markets don’t just test your views. They test your behaviour.

A familiar pattern shows up across market cycles: we feel braver after gains and more cautious after losses — and many investors end up “waiting for clarity” just as conditions start to improve.

Regular investing (putting a fixed amount to work every month) is one of the simplest ways to sidestep that behaviour trap. It’s not designed to make you feel clever. It’s designed to make you consistent.

What is AutoInvest?

AutoInvest is a monthly plan where you invest a fixed amount into selected ETFs on a set schedule.

It helps because it:

1. Reduces timing stress — you don’t have to decide “is now a good time?” every month.

2. Builds steadily through ups and downs (DCA) — you buy more when prices are lower and less when prices are higher.

3. Cuts decision fatigue — automation keeps your long-term plan moving even when headlines are noisy.

4. Gives compounding more time to work — staying invested consistently helps returns build on returns over time.

Who is AutoInvest for?

If you’re building your investing habit
A monthly plan lowers the “activation energy.” You don’t need a big one-time decision. You need a repeatable process:

• start small

• keep going

• build confidence through repetition

If you already trade or invest actively
Regular investing isn’t a beginner tool. It’s a portfolio architecture tool.

Think of it as:

• Core: a steady long-term engine that keeps compounding

• Satellite: your tactical ideas, themes, rotations, and shorter-term trades

This separation matters because it helps prevent tactical decisions from hijacking long-term compounding (especially during drawdowns, when emotions get a vote).

A 10-year illustration: what if you started regular investing in 2016?

To put regular investing into numbers, here’s a historical illustration using the S&P 500 annual total return (i.e., includes dividends reinvested).

If someone invested $500 every month from Jan 2016 to Dec 2025 (a total of $60,000 contributed), the portfolio would have grown to around $133,000 by end-2025 — roughly $73,000 of growth on top of what they put in.

Even at $100 per month, that’s $12,000 contributed and an ending value of around $26,600 over the same period. 

What makes this powerful isn’t the math — it’s the behaviour. That 10-year window included uncomfortable down years like 2018 (-6%) and 2022 (-19%), but also strong rebounds in 2023 (+24%), 2024 (+23%), and 2025 (+16%). Regular investing meant you kept showing up for all of it.

Important: This is an index-based historical illustration (not a promise). You can’t invest directly in an index, and actual outcomes will differ depending on the ETF used, costs, taxes, timing of contributions, and currency effects. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

How does AutoInvest work?

A good monthly plan is simple enough to sustain:

1. Open your account — Add AutoInvest as a sub-account in just a few clicks. It's quick and simple.

2. Set up AutoInvest — Tell us how much you would like to invest every month, select the ETFs and assign a percentage to each.

3. Fund your AutoInvest account — Set up a recurring monthly deposit from your bank account or transfer funds from your main Saxo account.

4. Relax and stay invested — The orders are placed automatically and you can edit, start or stop your recurring order at any time.

As confidence grows, you can:

• add more ETFs for diversification,

• increase the monthly amount,

• or use it as the core while you trade tactically around themes.

Risks and reality checks

Regular investing can improve discipline, but it does not remove risks:

• Markets can fall and stay weak for extended periods

• ETFs can be volatile, and thematic ETFs can be more concentrated

• Currency moves can materially change returns for SGD-based investors

• Costs matter (AutoInvest has no commissions on buying or platform fees, but currency conversion may apply depending on the ETF currency)

• Automation can create “set-and-forget drift” if you never review

Bottom line

Regular investing is not about predicting the next move. It’s about building a system that keeps working when you’re busy, uncertain, or tempted to overreact.

You don’t need perfect timing.

You need a repeatable process — and let time do the heavy lifting.

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