Key insights
- The post explores the low retail investor turnout in AGMs and the potential for monetizing proxy votes. While it highlights a potential inefficiency in corporate governance, it has limited direct impact on immediate US equity market movements. Apathy in voting could lead to governance issues in the long run, but this is a slow-burn risk.
Only around 30 percent of all retail investors vote during AGMs, and I believe this is caused by a lack of awareness and small investors having no incentive to vote (because most retail investors hold very small fractions of a company).
A few questions I'm curious about (if you are a retail investor):
- Have you ever actually voted your shares at an AGM? * Would you sell your vote to a corporation in exchange for cash * How much money would it take (%) * What would you need to trust a platform that let you monetize your proxy vote?
I'm exploring this space and trying to understand how retail investors actually feel about proxy voting before building anything. Appreciate any honest takes.