Essential Econometrics for Research in Finance @ NISM

I had the pleasure to attend  EERF 2011 @ NISM, Mumbai.

1. The program is from  Apr 30 - May 10,2011
2. I have met many interesting people from academics including  Mr D N RAO ( who has published widely on Mutual Funds), Dr Pandikumar ( PSGIM) .
3. On Day 1, interesting class sessions & discussion on Financial Data by Dr Kiran Kumar ( earlier with ISB) though afternoon session is a bit lacking in Financial examples .
4. Road map of Econometric tools and Statistical Thinking by  Dr K K on Day 1.
5. Most of the examples relate to Financial Markets and Market Efficiency and Microstructure. I hope to get some inspiration for my PhD Thesis.

MBA Finance Projects @ BlackSwan

I have the pleasure to interact with MBA Finance students advising on their Projects.

1. Most of the projects deal with  Indian Financial Markets, Risk Management at NSE, Performance Evaluation Of MF Schemes,Fundamental Analysis of Companies, Study of Commodities Markets,Risk Management using Derivatives,Study of F&O Market in India etc.
2. Indian market data is freely available at http://www.nseindia.com,www.bseindia.com,www.mcxindia.com/ and individual MF websites and Company websites for financial data/ Annual Reports.
3. Even though the project study appears simple at conceptual stage, there are lot of details at the implementation level. For ex when trying to do a study on " Performance evaluation of MF Schemes" we have come across the following issues.
4. Which Bench mark to consider ? NIFTY/ BSE 200/ CNX 100
5. NAV frequency ? Daily/ Weekly/ Monthly
6. What is the Risk free Return ?  RBI rate/ SBI term deposit rate
7. Various MF data sources are available. For eg  http://www.amfiindia.com,www.%20mutualfundsindia.com,value/ research, CRISIL, http://www.mf.economictimes.com/, SEBI, Business world and Business Standard sites.
8. For Capital Market related projects  ISMR 2009, NSE Fact Book, Risk Management guidelines are very useful.
9. Some common enquiries students can undertake is regarding examination of Return and Risk of selected instruments ( Equity Futures, Commodity Futures) and compare them on the basis of Volatility.
10. One fruitful study is adequate characterisation of Risk Containment Measures by exchanges ( NSE) in terms of Margins, Capital adequacy norms and their detailed calculation.