Saving Financial Markets understanding from Finance Teachers

When going through FDP s , Seminars and workshops in the past one month several  observations came to my mind.

1. Many Finance teachers are biased by their own limited experiences in Stock Market and try to generalise it.
2. Teachers giving advice on investments at random, advising students to play with some money.
3. I would like focussing on Data, Statistics and not imposing myopinions.
4. The good examples are  Bodie, Kane, Marcus Text on Investments and Ajay Shah's India's Financial Markets, JR Verma's  DRM book.
5. The danger in this process is either the professors are becoming too cynical or too enthusiastic.
6. Anecdotal examples have to be  kept to the bare minimum.
7. Always trying to examine data from NSE , taking the market design from NCFM workbooks  gives solid foundation. NCFM series now is a fairly comprehensive series consisting of all topics.
8. The common negative perception of Speculation and traders in the market blinds the finance teacher from truly comprehending their importance in providing liquidity and other issues.

Facebook + Finance = An explosive Combo

NSE has always been ahead in innovation.

1. As the MD says at the 20 years celebration.
2. NSE 's Facebook page is a must for all finace students and for anyone looking for motivation.
3. Their materials are always top class prepared by experts like Dr Ajayshah, Susan Thomas , Kshema Fernandez.
4. I plan to write some modules like options trading strategies advanced , derivatives advanced and market risk next month.
5. Finance is an obsession and addiction as I have seen in my friends at FDP like Mr. satheesha from Bangalore. I would like to visit his library in his home.

My impressions on Mysore

I have reached Mysore at 1 pm from Kozhikode. The road is deep into forest and total ghat section.

1. The road is full of rubber and sandalwood trees. We have stopped at some bus stand where they served excellent  parota with fish curry and full glass tea at a price of Rs 50.
2. I have reached my hotel which is very near to bus stand. But because of  my luggage I have taken auto.
3. There is very good traffic control and police is strict with autos and there is good prepaid auto system.
4. I have observed lot of non veg hotels.
5. For lunch I had ragi mudda with dal and cabbage which is priced at Rs 20.
6. There are lot of parks, foreign tourists in Mysore.
7. As I had some time the poster of one movie  Bhajarangi attracted me and I had purchased a ticket which is being openly sold for a higher price of 100. This movie reminded me of  the Telugu movie Arundhati. But the taking and the villain acted very ferociously.
8. Kannada is easy to read for Telugu people.
9. I am sorry to hear that Mysore Maharaja is no more ( 10 dec 2013)

FDP - Derivatives program completed

I have  completed the FDP program on Financial Derivatives at IIMK.

1. I have left IIMK at 6 am on 15 th Dec to travel to Mysore.
2. Surprisingly my interenet on  ipad started to work yesterday night itself. So I am very happy and charged it to 60% before leaving IIMK.
3. Packed everything and reached Kozhikode Bus stand at 7 am. The auto driver got surprised because I am paying him 250/- where as the Bus Charge for Mysore is 199 and IIMK is on the highway to Mysore.
4. I have really enjoyed the program having very good people like Dr Pradeep, Dr Prabha madam, especially Sathisha who used to mock me but I very much liked his energy and enthusiasm and passion for the subject.
5. I  appreciate Prabha madam's very nice nature and she could take lot of pictures for me.
6. Mr Vijay and Varsha Madam also very enthusiastic and helpful.
7. Archana Madam from Bangalore made the sessions  lively and interacted very well. I think she is very much interested in finance and understands mathematics well.

FDP session 3 & 4 Day1

Sessions 3 & 4 were taken by Prof  SSS Kumar.

1. This is on pricing and he had a very intuitive explanation. I would recommend anybody wanting to teach financial derivatives to attend this program.
2. His take on FRA s greatly impressed me and I have learnt and brushed up my basics on interest rate derivatives.
3. He is crystal clear on what he is talking and one of the pioneers on Derivatives having written a book on financial derivatives.
4. Now I would like to go back and read Paul Willmott on Derivatives which I am unable to crack 5 years ago.
5. We had a good lunch with chicken at staff dining hall. I have noticed that many staff working at IIIMK are courteous and they are very satisfied with their work. Even auto drivers are courteous and ignored  Rs 5 change.
6. Excellent interpretation of arbitrage profit and CCA and Reverse CCA. This brought me memories of teaching DRM at VJIM aLTHOUGH FOR a brIef period.

IIMK FDP: Day 1, Session 1& 2

I could not sleep the previous day due to  my phone going dead and i am unable to find any phones nearby. Some how the phone started working in the night around 3 am. I think  necessity makes you innovate and learn new things.  Earlier I am not comfortable changing SIM cards. But yesterday I struggled with it and could overcome this fear.

1. It is a very simple inauguration and very punctual.
2. There are  8 participants from allover the country.
3. The first session on Understanding Derivatives handled by Prof. Sony Thomas.
4. We had nice interactive session. Some of the doubts raised by participants appeared  elementary to me as I had a first hand experience in the markets as an academic, investor, trader, and intermediary.
5. As my daughter reads Sherlock Holmes in her english  lession , I am reminded of his remark " Elementary, My dear Watson."
6. Many random thoughts crowded my mind as I kept listening to prof . Sony Thomas lecture.
7. The discussion broght many personalities into mind like Nassim Taleb, J R Verma, Susan Thomas, Kiran Kumar Kotha, Ajay Shah, Michael Gorham.

Finance FDP s and workshops in DEC 2013

I am planning to attend FDP s and Workshops during Dec. I would like to refresh myself on Derivatives, SAPM, Valuation.

1. This is the first time  I am attending an FDP at IIM.
2. My first program is FDP on Financial Derivatives at IIMK. This is being conducted by Dr SSS Kumar who also studied at  SVUSBM , Tirupati from where I had taken my MBA.
3. I am travelling from Hyd to Kozhikode via Banglore.
4. I am extremely thankful to Narayanagroup  for sending me to this program.
5. Financial Derivatives FDP is from Dec 10 - 14 .
6. The IIMK campus is on a hill with excellent greenery. We are allotted at MDP guesthouse with terrific view of the hills.
7. I have met my classmate from svusbm Dr  Bala Subramanyam  working at IIMK after his doctoral studies at IISc incidentally when I have gone for coffee.
8. Strangely my phone stopped working when I reached Kozhikode. I went to a reliance shop outside iimk campus . He told the roaming will get activated in 3 hrs. Dr Prameela and Hita will be wondering about me.
9. Tomorrow I am planning to buy some IIMK t shirts from Madcom at hostel H.
10. My first lesson in negotiation started at the  Calicut Airport. The prepaid taxi service wrote 1450 Rs and gave a ticket to me. I got shocked and when I came out of Airport I changed my mind and said no to the deal. I negotiated with the taxiwallahs for  Rs 600. They arranged a shared cab with some people who are coming for thre same GDP from India group, pune and charged Rs 500 each. Thus I could save Rs 1000. This should be useful for my books.
11. Kerala as they say is God's own country. Splendid coconut trees , hills and water greeted me from the airport to  IIMK road. People looked content and down to earth.

Case Competition @ DHRUVA

I had the pleasure of attending case competition at Dhruva college of management and experienced their excellent hospitality and i cant help but appreciate excellent classroom infrastructure.

National Conference on Behavioral Finance

I am pleased to recieve a conference brochure from JNTU , SMS on Behavioral Finance. This is a subject close to my heart as I struggled with biases in the market and in an  academic sense .

1. Previously I had compiled one article on Behavioral Biases at Indianmba.com
2. I particularly liked John Nofsinger's Text on Investments for its focus on behavioral approach.