Pickleball and Investing — Ignore the Noise and Keep the Rally Going

Don't miss our upcoming FSM ETFestival, taking place on Saturday, 11 July 2026. Sign up now!

In recent times, pickleball has been attracting so much attention not just in Singapore, but globally. Whether that attention is positive or negative depends entirely on who you ask. Those who love the game will tell you it's the fun type of sport anyone can pick up. Those who can't stand it will tell you exactly how loud and irritating that hollow pop from the ball can sound.

A few weeks ago, while out on a casual jog around my neighbourhood, I stumbled upon a cluster of brand new pickleball and padel courts. Freshly painted lines, nicely refurbished facilities, and players radiating the kind of good vibes that make you want to join in. Something about it just pulled me in.

So, I did what an excited kid would do in a candy shop — I headed straight to a sports shop, grabbed my first paddle, and booked my first court session.

Now, as someone who thinks about finance and investing probably a little too much (yes, job hazard), my brain has a habit of drawing connections back to the world of investing. So, there I was, gasping for air after the game, when it struck me that pickleball and investing share more similarities than I would have expected.

Here's what I mean.

1. The market is loud. So is a pickleball court.

That sharp pop of a pickleball is deeply satisfying if you're the one hitting it. If you're the neighbour trying to enjoy a quiet Sunday morning, not so much. Noise complaints have been filed in cities worldwide. The sound carries whether you want it to or not.

The market works the same way. Interest rate decisions, earnings calls, geopolitical headlines, your show-off colleague who just "made a killing" on some AI-related stocks — the noise is constant and relentless.

But here's what I noticed on the court: the better players aren't louder, they're quieter. They observe the ball's bounce and their opponent's footwork, and tune out everything else. Seasoned investors do the same. They are constantly separating signal from noise. The question isn't whether the market will be flooded with headlines — it always will be. The question is whether you're picking up the right signals or simply drowning in the noise.

2. The hardest swing isn't the best one.

I used to play badminton in my school days. My entire instinct was to swing hard, smash it, and win the point. Simple enough.

Pickleball humbled me within the first ten minutes.

The game rewards finesse, not force. The best shots slightly clear the net — soft, precise, placed exactly where your opponent can't reach them. The harder I swung, the more likely the ball ended up on the next court instead.

I've watched many investors make the same mistake. Chasing for the hottest stock. Jumping in and out of the market trying to time every move. It feels powerful. It feels like you're doing something. But more often than not, all that activity just creates unnecessary stress, extra fees, and a bag of regret.

The investors who build real wealth over time? They're not the flashy ones. They make steady contributions. They rebalance without drama. They sit on their idle cash via FSM Cash Solutions when every instinct screams to act. It's not exciting. But control, it turns out, beats force every single time.

3. There's no age requirement.

One of the more charming things about pickleball is watching a 65-year-old retiree and a 25-year-old young bloke share the same court and have a genuinely competitive rally. The sport scales. Everyone can get involved regardless of age.

Investing is no different. A fresh graduate putting aside $500 a month into FSM Regular Saving Plan and a retiree carefully drawing down from his or her FSM portfolios are playing the same game, just at different stages of it. The principles don't change. Time horizon does. Risk tolerance does. But the fundamentals — diversify your portfolio, stay the course, don't panic — those hold at every age.

There's a line that gets repeated so often it's become a cliché, but it keeps being true: the best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is today.

4. The dink rally is where matches are won.

Watch a high-level pickleball match and you'll see something that surprises most newcomers: long, patient rallies where both players just wait. These are called dink rallies — soft shots traded back and forth, 10, 15 times, neither side forcing the issue.

It looks boring from the outside. From the inside, it's chess. Each player is probing, resetting, looking for the moment the other blinks first. Impatient players can't stand it. They force a shot too early and lose the point.

Markets test patience in exactly the same way. Great companies go through rough patches, and I can easily name a few from this year alone. The more you buy, the lower it seems to fall. There will be months, sometimes years, where it feels like nothing is happening, and every headline suggests you should be doing something else.

The investors who come out ahead aren't the ones who moved fastest. They're the ones who stayed in the rally the longest.

5. The community is the point.

What caught me off guard most about pickleball wasn't the gameplay. It was the people.

Strangers wave you into a game. Experienced players pause to give you tips mid-rally. Everyone sticks around after the match to chat. There's a generosity to it — a genuine willingness to bring newcomers in rather than gatekeep the sport. Nobody is trying to protect some secret. Everyone just wants more people to love the game.

The FSM community has that same spirit. Our research team publishes articles frequently and in a timely manner. We organise webinars and physical events such as FSM Invest Expo and FSM ETFestival. Our non-commission based investment advisory team is just an email away if you need any investment advice. We have also enhanced our live chat, and you can now ask questions relating to FSM not only in English and Mandarin, but in a whole range of different languages.

Because at the end of the day, investing doesn't have to be a lonely, intimidating pursuit. The best communities, whether on the court or in the market, are the ones that pull you in, cheer you on, and stick around through the long rallies.

So here I go, proofreading this article one last time before I pick up my paddle, dink some balls, and have a great time on the court. And if you're just starting out, whether in pickleball or investing, just know the FSM community is rooting for you.