“Investment Strategy Fair EXPO 2023” hosted by Pan Rolling, Inc. was held at PACIFICO Yokohama North on March 11. Venue held was the first time in four years, sponsored by Japan Exchange Group, Inc. (JPX) and Tokyo Financial Exchange, Inc. (TFX), and co-sponsored by 17 traders: IG Securities Ltd., SBI SECURITIES Co., Ltd., Okasan Online Securities Co., Ltd., OKAYASU SHOJI Co., Ltd., The Kosei Securities Co., Ltd., Gold Link corporation, SUNWARD TRADING INC., GMO CLICK Securities, Inc., Tecotec Inc., NIHON HOLDINGS Co., Ltd., FUJITOMI SECURITIES Co., Ltd., Broadbrains Inc., Matsui Securities Co., Ltd., MONEY ACADEMY, Monex, Inc., Moomoo Securities Japan Co., Ltd., Rakuten Securities, Inc..
Below is the reporter’s experience.

It was venue held for the first time in four years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its venue was “PACIFICO Yokohama North”at Minatomirai, Yokohama. As the previous venues were “Tokyo Dome City PRISM HALL”, this time, it may have taken time and effort for the most exhibiting traders that have the business offices in the center of Tokyo.
Fortunately, it was good weather and I walked from JR Yokohama station to the venue. Its area was compartmentalized and near sea, so I felt comfortable.
When I arrived at the entrance of PACIFICO Yokohama, I saw that the signboard of the event had been raised in long sideways position. It was a little past 2 pm and there were quite a few visitors in the venue.
In three days after it was held, when I inquired to the host company about the number of the visitors, it answered that its totaling hasn’t finished yet, however according to the event website, the number of the visitors was 4,331 people in 2018 and 4,462 people in 2019. This time also may be as many as them.
The booth of Tokyo Financial Exchange (TFX) was the nearest place from the front entrance of the venue and a knowledgeable staff welcomed me. CME Group, which sponsored the events in 2018 and 2019, didn’t sponsor this time.
The booth of JPX located in the middle of the venue and explanation about Nikkei 225 Micro Futures & Mini Option to be started on May 29 had been done there, so the visitors who couldn’t enter there had listened it eagerly standing in the aisles. The visiting investors seemed to be very interested in such mini transactions, so JPX seemed to have made an effort advertising the new transactions. On the covers of the hand mirrors for sales promotion that were distributed to the visitors, the names of the new transactions had been written, and over fifty page brochures relating to option transactions were distributed too.
There was the booth of The Kosei Securities Co., Ltd. behind it of JPX, and at the exact start time of the mini-seminar, I entered into it. Its lecturer was Ms. Nozomi Andoh of Simplex Institute, Inc. and she introduced the usefulness of “Target buying” and “Covered call” based on her trading results, herself standing in spring-like kimono at the booth. The seminar was short version of main one and thirty seven lecturers including her lectured at the five meeting sites from A site to E site adjacent to the main meeting site. The lecture style was the same as them of the past events and the seminars of the popular lectures seemed to have been filled in the pre-sales.
As to the commodity futures traders, OKAYASU SHOJI, SUNWARD TRADING and FUJITOMI SECURITIES exhibited the respective booths and each trader appealed devising how to show off to the visitors. OKAYASU SHOJI advertised the booth using green and white sheets and the wearing jackets of the staffs were unified a fluorescent color to bring out a sense of unity. SUNWARD TRADING served the lottery using questionnaire and improved the effect of attracting visitors by showing off replica gold bars and gold colored fake 100 million yen bills. As an unusual case, the largest online securities company in Japan, SBI Securities introduced the gold futures to be started on March 27 at Osaka Dojima Exchange, Inc. (ODEX). I watched around there for a while, however unfortunately, it seemed that visitors weren’t very interested in the gold futures. Visitors in the booth of ODEX were sparse, so I got an impression that a problem was enlightenment activities from now on.
On the back site, the books relating to investment published by the host, Pan Rolling, were sold at discounted prices. The books written by the lectures were treated too, so many visitors stopped by and I felt the awareness level of visitors for investment theory. There was a stamp rally lottery adjacent to the book corner and its special prize was a 100 thousand yen travel voucher, but there was no winner as of 3 pm.
In the early evening, visitors who were carrying bags full of materials distributed in the booths and books purchasing at the book corner, taking a break on benches outside the venue, were seen. After the event, the exchange meeting for investor was held at 7:30 pm at “RISTORANTE ATTIMO”on the second floor of PACIFICO Yokohama Exhibition Hall. I couldn’t　attend the meeting because it was inconvenient unfortunately. It was the 　large party whose participant capacity was 180 people and continued for three hours till the closing time, 10:30 pm, so it must have got excited.

（Futures Tribune・issued March 14, 2023・no.3203）