When you are ill you go to doctor and if you have just shifted in a place where you don’t know any doctor you ask your colleagues or neighbours about their family doctor and take good reference. The same we do with Lawyers and we also do the same with Investment Consultant or Manager. After the growth of mutual fund industry in India the role of investment management industry has completely changed. Earlier there were very few investment options available to public because there was no instrument available which analysed probable risk and return scenario of a particular asset class. So the investments we were doing were scattered.

We do investment for Wealth Creation and there by achieving our goals in life. The most conservative way of investment was investment in Gold or Land and even ‘investment’ through LIC policy! But to generate Return there is another factor we need to deal with is Risk. Everyone has not gained good knowledge that can assess the risk in a particular asset class as per market scenario.

However, things are changing fast now and with the growth of Mutual Fund industry people have understood how return of their investment is earned and also how to protect different types of risk in their life. They have also understood importance to deal with these two separately. In simple words: a mutual fund is an investment scheme managed by a professional fund manager or portfolio manager. Any small investor can buy mutual fund units and such fund is invested in different securities like shares, bonds, gold etc. with an objective to earn high returns and maximise the value of the investment.

Over the last ten years, total funds managed by mutual fund industry (called Assets Under Management or AUM) have grown every year by average 20%, from almost Rs.6 lakh crores in 2012 to Rs.36 lakh crores in 2022. Slowly, a part of our savings is moving from bank fixed deposits to Mutual funds. Mutual fund AUM constituted 10% of total bank deposits in 2013, have now reached around 23% of total bank deposits. There are almost 50 Mutual fund Asset Management companies (or AMCs) in our country today, running almost 1,500 different investment schemes! And yet, there is still lot of growth potential as our AUM to GDP ratio is just 15% compared to global average of 60-70%. Similarly, we have more than 50 crore PAN number-holders in India, but only about 3 crore folios in mutual fund investments.

To look at it differently: the total value of all listed companies in India (called market capitalization) was approx. Rs.50 lakh crores in 2010. It has grown 5 times in last 12 years and today it has reached approx. Rs.250 lakh crores!

The future of Capital Market is extraordinary. As India’s Per Capita Income has increased and there is continuous reduction in interest rate, we have only one way left to generate our wealth – which is capital market. We can take exposure to capital market through direct route (direct investment in equity share and bonds) and through indirect route (through mutual fund and provident fund). In last 7 years, Government has taken many steps to streamline procedure of investment in capital market and also made so many efforts to create awareness about capital market and its products. There are so many agencies involved in capital market which creates numerous job opportunities like Banks, Asset Management Companies, Investment Advisor, Distributor, Brokers, Proprietary Traders, Depositories, Registrar and Transfer Agents, and Educational Institute etc.

I will give a brief introduction of Capital market and then list out different career options available in capital market.

Capital market deals with raising capital for a company in the form of shares, debentures and bonds. There are two types of capital market segments. One is primary market which deals with Initial Public Offering (or IPO) of shares, debentures or bonds. After their issue, these financial instruments are listed on stock exchanges and then these are traded on stock exchanges, which are called secondary market.

There are many different people involved in stock market activities in different ways like: trading, managing investments, advising on investments, distributor of investment instruments and so on.

SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India –the main regulatory body of capital market) has established an educational institute named National Institute of Securities Market (NISM). All participants involved in capital market related activities need to get a certificate from NISM first. Once this certificate is received then they can apply for any job or can apply for license of doing business.The link is here. https://www.nism.ac.in/

I will list out now different career options available in Stock Market.

1. ANALYST:

• Their role is to analyze different investment and trading opportunities available in market.

• Employment Opportunities – They are employed in companies like Mutual funds, Broking house and Research House where they generate good ideas of investment and trading and give advice to their clients.

• Qualification – Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Financial Risk Management (FRM), Chartered Accountant (CA), MBA Finance, MS Finance, Certified Market Technician (CMT).

• NISM Research Analyst Certificate is mandatory for this job.

2. STOCK BROKER and INVESTMENT PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTOR:

• Role – Whose role is to trade and distribute financial products like Shares, Bonds, Debentures, Currency, Mutual funds and Deposits.

• Employment Opportunities –A broker trades on behalf of their clients and earn brokerage income. An Investment products distributor sells investment products to their clients as per their needs. To carry out this operation they need Dealers, Operation Manger and Sales Executives.

• Qualification – Graduate, MBA Finance, Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Certified Wealth Manager (CWM).

• Mandatory NISM Certifications are for Equity Derivatives, Currency Derivative, Mutual Fund Distribution, Securities Operation and Risk Management

3. INVESTMENT ADVISOR:

• Role – Investment advisor only gives advice and not distribute financial products. They asses risk profile of their clients and as per their needs they suggest suitable financial products. They can charge consulting fees as per their services.

• Qualification – CFA, CWM, CFP, MBA Finance, MS Finance, Graduate.

• Mandatory NISM Certification is Investment Advisor Level 1 and Level 2.

4. PROPRIETARY TRADER:

• Role – they are given margin limit to trade in broker’s account and they have to generate profit for proprietary firm. These are salaried persons and also get benefit of incentive if they generate sufficient return as decided by the firm. They sometime trade with different Options strategies where they must be good in managing different options strategies and they try to generate good risk adjusted returns.

• Qualification – CFA, CA, MBA Finance, MS Finance, Graduate.

• Mandatory NISM Certifications are for Equity Derivatives, Currency Derivative, Research Analyst and Certified Market Technician.

5. RISK OPERATION MANAGER:

• Role – They need to manage risk of brokers who generally gives trading limits to their clients and report to the management.

• Qualification –MBA Finance, Graduate.

• Mandatory NISM Certification is Security Operation and Risk Management.

6. COMPLIANCE OFFICER:

• Role – they have to co-ordinate with stock exchanges and depositories about compliance with rules, regulations and other directives of SEBI. They also have to monitor email received by grievance redressal division of the listed companies.

• Qualification – LL.B. and C.S.

• Mandatory NISM Certification is Security Operation and Risk Management.

For details of various training courses, please see the website links given below where you can find more information about different courses, its duration, admission procedure, passing percentage and fee etc.

• For all Capital Market Related Courses – National Institute of Security Market (NISM) – https://www.nism.ac.in/

• Some reputed colleges providing MBA Finance are:

• S.P. Jain Institute, Mumbai – https://spjimr.org/

• Narsee Monjee Institute, Mumbai – https://www.nmims.edu/

• Taxila Business School, Jaipur – https://taxila.in/

• Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi – https://www.lbsim.ac.in/

• Xavier Institute of Social Service – https://www.xiss.ac.in/

• K. J. Somaiya Institute, Mumbai – https://simsr.somaiya.edu/en

• ICFAI Business School – https://ibsindia.org/

There are also a few foreign institutes which are very reputed, as follows:

• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) – https://www.cfainstitute.org/ – Foreign Institute

• Chartered Market Technician (CMT) – https://cmtassociation.org/ – Foreign Institute

• Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM) – https://cwmindia.com/ – Indian Branch

Let me introduce myself now:

I am Bhargav Dave, son of Sushilbhai & Jyotiben Dave and I am located at Ahmedabad. I have more than 15 years’ experience in Capital Market and currently I am working as a ‘Senior Manager – Trading Desk’ at Junomoneta Finsol Pvt. Ltd., a Proprietary Trading Firm which is a part of Plutus Wealth Management. Earlier I worked as an associate with JM Financial Services Pvt. Ltd for 6 years and after that I worked as an Independent Financial Advisor. I am also an empanelled trainer with NISM, NSE, BSE and many other Training institutes in India. About my educational qualification, I have completed M.S.-Finance from ICFAI University, Hyderabad. In case you’d like to contact me, here are my contact details: Mobile Number: (+91-98982-51239), Email Id: bhargav7dave@gmail.com.