The majority of women who manage their investments online feel they’ve been successful at closely matching or outperforming the markets, according to the first-ever International TD Women Investor Poll, for which TD Waterhouse (Canada), TD Direct Investing (UK) and TD Ameritrade (U.S.) teamed up to survey women investors in different countries to reveal their thoughts and attitudes about a variety of investment topics.

More than twice as many women in the U.S. (31%) and UK (38%) manage their investments online compared with their Canadian counterparts (13%).

“While Canada may currently have fewer online investors compared to the U.S. and UK, women investors are one of our fastest growing customer segments,” says Rowena Chan, vice president, TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage.

Of these women online investors, more than three-quarters in Canada (76%) say they’ve consistently outperformed, or performed close to the market. This is consistent with women investors in the U.S. and UK who say they’ve also been successful managing their own investments online (81% and 82% respectively).

The majority of women online investors in all three countries (Canada: 87%, U.S.: 94% and UK: 87%) also say they are quite confident or level-headed about managing their portfolio, although in each country surveyed, approximately one-in-ten women (Canada: 13%, U.S.: 6% and UK: 13%) say they’re nervous and “never feel like they’re making the right decisions when it comes to their investments.”

The majority of women say they have changed nothing in their portfolio in reaction to volatility in the markets (Canada: 61%, U.S.: 54%, UK: 52%), saying they are confident they have a long-term plan that can weather the volatility.

Generally, women say they are risk-averse; Canadian and British women report to be the most conservative. Thirty-eight percent of women in Canada and 35% of women in the UK say they don’t want to take any chances with their money — only one quarter of American women (25%) gave this answer. The majority of women in all three countries said they are willing to take small chances to receive a better return (Canada: 58%, U.S.: 66%, UK: 60%), and very few women describe themselves as having a high risk tolerance (Canada: 4%, U.S. 8%, UK: 5%).

For the 2012 International TD Women Investor Poll Report, TD Bank commissioned Environics Research Group to conduct an online custom survey of 2,014 men and women in Canada, 1,003 in the U.S. and 1,006 in the United Kingdom. All respondents have investable assets and sole or shared responsibility of the household financial planning or investment decisions.