2025 outlook: What to expect from the Singapore retail trading space

Singapore’s economy showed impressive resilience in 2024, bouncing back from what had been a slow post-pandemic recovery — with geopolitics and technology playing a significant role in the year’s growth. In Singapore, GDP in 2024 is estimated to have grown by 3.5% YoY, vs 1.1% growth YoY in the year before, as per November 2024 estimates by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore. Equities also soared, with the The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) hitting a 17-year high in November. Inflation has progressively normalised, with core inflation projected to average 2.5–3.0% in 2024 as a whole, compared with 5% in 2023 and 6% in 2022, as per data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Last year, change and volatility were key themes across the globe, from bumper election activity to heightened levels of geopolitical instability. As we step into 2025, the retail trading space and the wider financial landscape in Singapore looks poised for another dynamic year, with further growth expected.

In this article, I’ll explore the key trends that I see shaping the Singaporean market, and what that might mean for us in the retail trading space in 2025.

The number of retail traders in Singapore continues to show greater resilience than most other markets post-Covid, with data from Investment Trends estimating that there are around 73,000 online investors interested in CFDs currently in the market. We are also increasingly seeing a younger demographic enter the space: in 2024, the latest cohort of new traders was younger compared to the previous year.

Despite Singapore being a mature market, clients are certainly not content to rest on their laurels — whether it’s seeking to diversify their portfolios, wanting to participate more actively in the global financial markets, or looking to build new skills. Skills-building appears to be a particular priority for younger traders, who often cite the desire to learn as the key motivator for them to enter the CFD/FX trading space. The younger generation are also by default more tech savvy, curious and empowered, and as a result want to take greater control of their own finances.

The interest in financial markets outside of Singapore remains trendy - in particular the US and Europe in the west, but also Japan and Hong Kong in the East. In all of these countries, 2025 presents a plethora of interesting opportunities for traders for different reasons with a number of variables at play.

In Singapore and elsewhere, there is a keen appetite among traders for educational content — a trend that underscores a shift towards more informed and strategic participation in financial markets. At OANDA, supporting education and strategic decision-making is a key focus: our analyst-led events, which centre on the implications of macro events as well as technical analysis and trading methodologies, have proven extremely popular with clients.

Traders today are presented with a wealth of options, and most are looking for competitive pricing and effective decision support. In this landscape, brokers that offer a platform that provides trust, transparency and control, alongside the tools that clients need to trade more effectively, are those that are likely thriving.

Globally, clients are also demanding a great digital experience and the ability to trade from where it is convenient to them — whether that be mobile or desktop. But this should not come at the expense of a high-quality service and a personalised approach. One of the things we’ve done really well at OANDA over the past couple of years is to develop a loyalty-based value proposition that rewards our most active clients. The more active you are on our platform, the more you get back — including a dedicated relationship manager, direct access to our market analysts, exclusive invites to OANDA events, reduced transaction fees and more. We can completely tailor our offering to meet the needs of clients based on what matters most and this type of personalisation has been received really well by our clients. Making our value proposition compelling is an ongoing project for OANDA - it never stops, as we continually gather data and client insights to understand what traders want and need, which means we not only have sharper insights to adapt our service offering, but can use this intelligence to shape our product roadmap.

Despite Southeast Asia’s strong push towards adoption of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), a study by IBM in Q4 2024 revealed that only four percent of ASEAN organisations have reached the transformative stage of AI readiness. Yet in Google's report on “The ROI of Generative AI in Financial Services,” 63% of financial services organizations reported that they have production use cases and are seeing real ROI already. The narrative is fragmented by sector, but it is all evolving at a rapid pace. In 2023 we were hearing about how Gen AI was going to disrupt businesses overnight. 2024 has been a year of massive investment into and early adoption of Gen AI. Is 2025 the year where we see even more enablement and noticeable productivity or creativity gains? Maybe.

Furthermore, is it the year where the next stage of AI—Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—evolves from being only a theoritical possibility? Remarkably, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, in his recent blog has claimed “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it”. So, maybe!

Singapore plays a key role in the global technology value chain, given the presence of major semiconductor companies such as Micron Technology, GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics, which produce chips that support AI applications. Singapore has also developed its own National AI strategy - NAIS 2.0. For the AI curious, it is well worth getting to grips with the NAIS 2.0 report to understand Singapore's vision and goals around this hot topic.

While generative AI has garnered a huge amount of hype in the recent past, I believe that 2025 could be pivotal in determining its real-world impact. Properly regulating AI might be just as important as fully embracing it. But what will come first? Will we see global harmonisation in approach? Elon Musk famously used the mandatory wearing of seat belts for cars in 1984 in New York as a historical example of introducing legislation too late in the context of AI. His argument being that if we are equally as late with AI, it almost certainly will be too late. The way this plays out will be very intriguing.

Big Tech firms have invested heavily in AI infrastructure, but we are yet to determine whether the technology will deliver on some of its lofty promises — particularly around increased productivity and innovation. Given Singapore’s important role in this space, as AI continues to mature its development is likely to have significant consequences for the domestic market as much as it will internationally. Given the pace of progress so far, I’m fascinated to see what will happen in 2025.

While none of us can predict the future, I think we can reasonably expect to see continued turbulence geopolitically in the year ahead. In 2024, the world’s four biggest democracies, India, Indonesia, the United States, and Pakistan, all went to the polls, as did 27 EU member states electing the new European Parliament; one estimate had it that this year has seen elections in more than 70 countries inhabited by half the human race. The Financial Times described the election results of 2024 as “a Graveyard for incumbents", as every single political party defending their record in government in the last twelve months either lost voting ground but still won, or lost altogether. Alas, 2024 was the year where people around the world voted for change. 2025 will be the year where we see these changes start to take effect (or not - it is politics after all), and that is what makes it a very opportunistic year for traders.

The Singaporean online trading market remains heavily focused on indices and the US equities market, as well as FX and metals, so while 2024’s election-driven volatility will subside, there will be a great deal of interest around US-China relations and other geopolitical tensions. From supply chain disruptions to inflationary pressures, geopolitical risks will continue to influence asset classes like gold, oil, and forex — providing ample opportunity for traders to speculate.

Situated in an outward-looking, globally connected market, Singaporean traders are well-positioned to capitalise on the trends that will shape the global markets in 2025, and to navigate the opportunities that arise as a result. If my predictions are correct, we can expect to see another year of growth.