The Rookie Investors Saga

         The pandemic has introduced two new things for the people ; One is the Concept of Work From Home and the other is Stock Market Trading. After the nation wide lock down announced in March 2020, made the country to stand still many people who are left with enough time and with surplus cash went like flocking birds in the arena of stock markets. Ever Since, that was started the benchmark indices are flying high notching up records after records. According to reports, an average of 12-15 Lakh new demat accounts are opened in the last 14 months which tells you a story.

Young People who are working from home found it an easy way to invest in not just in blue-chip but in small caps to even penny stocks. 

These Newbie investors shepherded the markets higher and higher without taking a note of How the economy lives . Those investors who came and redeemed their mutual funds on the fall of markets last year came back strongly flocking in buying mutual funds more and more having seen the fantastic returns they say from the last years rally in the markets.

Some of the investors who used mutual funds for investments , ditched them and started buying stocks directly . Many of these investors pumped money even to penny stocks which paved them move up higher and higher. This also returned glamorous return to these investors who blindly bought these stocks all alone. 

The real menace of trading and investing in penny stocks is that the price moves up very fast and also goes down rapidly which results in humungous losses. These work from home people doesn't bother much about the company, its business and fundamentals but only the prices of it. That is the reason behind the uptick in stock prices of even debt laden companies. 

We should not forget that only around 3% percent of population invests in stock markets in India while the number is quite big in the case of USA which is around 55% . People entering the stock markets is a positive sign for India . Many people are not investing in stock market is because they don't have proper guidance and knowledge about it. Through the advent of social media people tends to know more about the stock markets and entering it even if they don't have adequate knowledge of the same. 

So, my little advice to all those investors who are Working from Home is to stay focused to those companies with fantastic fundamentals and have future growth,

Cheers...

The Power of Patience-A Real life Story

                        Thers is an old saying "A man who is the master of patience is the master of everything". Yes, thats true. If you have the patience and have the attitude of not giving up you can master everything in this world be it in Stock Market or be in you career and life. I'll depict a small lesson of my stock market investing journey.

                        Stock market was another world for me before joining a stock broking firm just after I completed my Masters degree in Finance. I learnt how it works during my studies as usual but I didn't know how people like Warren Buffet, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Radhakrishna Damani made  tons of money from stock market. I was in Sales Department of that stock broking firm. We had three employees in our office , A manager, a dealer and myself. Still we have been doing a great job both trading and selling of financial products like Mutual Funds, Insurance et al. I was in charge of conducting programs in different institutions , generating leads from it and ultimately selling our products to them. It was that time I got to learn about stock markets. For convincing the leads I had to learn about it and should be able to clear their doubts on it. Hence, I have stepped up my game in stock market investing.

                    Mutual Funds was my area of interest at that time. For common people who have little knowledge in stock market can use these simple products which constitutes a large bunch of stocks/securities of companies thereby decreasing their risk considerable based on the funds they select. This was most easy to convince people and I have sold a lot if it during my tenure.

                Later on I moved on to another company when I eventually realize Sales Man was not my cup of tea to be honest. I handled accounts role in the new company which seems to be my designated career goal. During that time I realized the importance of stock market investing , how it can be used for wealth creation. 

                I was lucky enough to find some colleagues who are more than settled in stock markets with their research and views on companies. They have made me crazy about different companies , their future and other stuffs. I happened to be taking a page from their advices and started buying individuals stocks myself unlike investing in mutual funds which are the most preferred way. After some time I found how interesting a place to be in stock markets. Just looking at my portfolio I happened to laughing at it to be honest .

                The above is one of the stock I bought during that time. I bought only small quantity but I have no regrets for it because I was a novice at that time . I bought ten shares of Happiest Minds which is an IT company which is more of digital service provider . I had researched about the company, its prospects, its future and financials before buying it , I was fortunate enough to find my research to be on the spot.

I had waited for almost a year to make it grow to this extent which I'm very good at. Just waiting at the right moment to fire. 

My message to all of you is to wait , wait, wait.. as long as you find this kind of miracles.

Cheers😇

BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE STREETS OF INDIA

You know more than 90% of people in India works in unorganized sector. You should have certainly come across the street book sellers in Thrissur Round (Swaraj Round). Ha-ha. I am a Thrissur native, have come across them so many times. Did you ever think of the return on investment on those street vendors? That Return on Investment (ROI) is so much more than that of a chromium finished, marble made large shopping malls. Can you imagine that? Yes, that is true. If you bargain at those street vendors, you would probably have won the deal but If you can imagine bargaining at a shopping mall, you are in a dream.

We have big companies. We have big stock exchanges BSE,NSE, Sensex, Nifty lot more. Whenever some Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) comes in, we see a lot of enthusiasm goes for rounds. Do not think that’s a big deal. What’s that matters that how people earn for a living. Those people on the streets have lot more skills of customer acquisition. Let us take you to another example. Have you ever visited Thrissur Pooram Exhibition? If not, I must say you should have but now that is not the case. Or even Jews Street have that same posture. Each shop is too close, If a customer comes inquires about some thing the shop keeper should instantly or the customer will go other shop wherever they gets at a low price.

I had an opportunity to Visit Visakhapatnam for an official trip. During the journey, I had to stay back at the city as my flight back home was another day. Since, I got some time, I had visited one of the marketplaces nearby. It has been a crowded place. Lot of shops, lot of people just like a Thrissur Pooram Exhibition I mentioned earlier. When I was wandering through those streets, one young boy, who was begging came to me. Since it is a young boy, I searched my bag for any coins. But I cannot find anything. He was standing staring at me to get money. With much hesitation, I must say, I picked up some Ten rupee note and gave it to him. Instantly, He ran off somewhere. I was watching him running away. His friends were waiting at one point. He was so amused by such high reward, sharing with them. Much to my surprise, at one point he was pointing at me and saying something. Next moment, I see another boy standing before me and begging. You must see the positive around this incident. They have a co-ordination, persuasion and customer acquisition skill. Suppose if you put an employee and ask them to get the product sold to some guy. They will go and ask them if they want the product. The party will say they have no budget for it and ask them to come next year. The employee will come and say the party is not interested, that’s it. Chapter closed. That is not the case about the boy I met here. He is such intelligent to give links to others and have a dig at it.

India have such a high rate of young generation. They are well educated also. But employment is such an issue. We have some 1000 crore companies here. Not everyone can get into it. Because of this AI, Automation and all these stuffs, it is getting hard even well educated to get a job. Now it seems almost impossible after this pandemic.

What you can do is  help small shops. Even if it is a small shop, give them advice, some capital, so that they can be better and earn more. It only needs your goodness.

That’s all for today. See you next week.

Signing Off…..👋