When Azra Kaiser wakes up every morning, she assumes the role of a regular housewife with regular household chores -- cook food, pack lunch boxes, see husband and kids off (to work and school respectively) and get the house tidied up.
Come 10 am, when the stock market opens, she is either on the computer or talking on the phone or checking the television channel, CNBC. The demure housewife is transformed into an aggressive stock trader.
Once trading shuts for the day (3.30 pm), the transformation from a trader to a housewife is instant. She prepares a snack for her kids who return from school, sits with them while they do their homework and then prepares dinner.
Later in the night, she will tell her husband how much she made (or lost).
Welcome to a world where housewives are fast stepping into the trading ring.
The new breed
Trading is no longer the exclusive domain of men. Not only are professional women fast getting into the act, housewives are doing so too.
For one, it has never been more convenient. All you need to do is open a demat account (to hold all your shares electronically) and get an online internet broker. That's it. You can now buy and sell shares without leaving your home.
It was convenience that enticed Sheba John towards online trading.
A chartered accountant in her 20s, she decided to take a few years off her career to look after her new-born son. But, when she found herself bored and restless, she decided to play the stock market.
Today, she is hooked.
If you find yourself taking a sabbatical or a break from work and want to be a stock market player, you definitely can do so today. Here are some pointers given by women who have taken the plunge.
1. Decide whether you want to be an investor or a trader.
A lot of women buy shares but that does not make them traders; they are just investors.
An investor will think long-term. He will analyse the fundamentals of the company before buying the shares and then hold on to them for a number of years. Over time, he will get dividends from the company, maybe bonus shares and the share price will increase.
A trader is not that far-sighted and will continuously buy and sell shares. So, if the trader feels that Infosys will go up in a few days, he will buy Infosys shares today and sell them in a day or two for a small profit. He will then wait for it to dip again before making another purchase. Or, even if it does not dip but he feels it is going to go higher, he will once again buy and then sell when the price is right.
If he conducts the above transactions (buy and sell) within a day, he is referred to as a day trader. Day traders are those who buy/ sell stocks during the day and square up their position by the end of the day. This means they either book a profit or a loss.
So, you have to first decide whether your mental stamina and emotional mindset are geared towards trading or investing.
2. Get acquainted with the basics
Women often feel intimidated about participating in the stock market. This fear can be eliminated by knowledge. So work on increasing your awareness.
The Bombay Stock Exchange has a number of courses to increase your stock market awareness. You could go on to their Web site to check out the programmes and the relevant fees.
Get your hands on some good reading material. Read the financial dailies and a few business magazines. Surf the Internet for dedicated finance portals and watch the CNBC channel on television.
3. Put the infrastructure in place
First of all, you will need a computer.
This is all the more essential if you plan to open an online trading account.
If you cannot get one right away, ask your online broker if clients are allowed to walk into their branches to trade. A number of them allow it. They have terminals set up in all their offices for their clients.
If you don't have an online trading account, you will then have to call your broker or sub-broker and tell them which shares you want to buy or sell.
Even if you figure that you don't need a computer as a dire necessity, do remember you will need it for surfing.
When you do get a computer, it will be better if you opt for a broadband connection rather than a Dialup Internet Connection.
Also, you will have to open a demat account since all shares are now electronically held.
4. Start with a hypothetical account
Once you are ready to start trading, play the game without real money being involved. Sheba John did this for around three months before parting with hard cash. She recommends it for any beginner.
Her husband would suggest some stocks (though he was not into finance) and so would a friend. She would bounce it off her sub-broker friend too, read the various finance portals and do a bit of follow up.
She began to make note of who is suggesting what and saw how their suggestions perform over time.
"Record successes and failures as if you were trading with real money. See how you feel when you lose," she advises. "Can you stomach it?"
5. Keep your distance
"This is just part of your life, not your life. View it as a job that has to be done. Learn to be detached," suggests Azra.
Don't let it become an obsession.
"Learn not to get too emotionally involved," says Sheba.
Making losses is inevitable. Don't take it as a personal failure. "If you have bought a stock that is losing, it is better to sell than to hopelessly wait for it to rise. If you are not emotionally involved, it is easier to cut your losses."
6. Play safe
Don't put in all your savings into stocks. It is way too risky. From your entire savings, decide how much you are willing to stake on this. Put the balance in safe instruments like post office deposits and the Public Provident Fund.
Sheba started with Rs 40,000. She invested all the profits she made back back into the stock market. Her initial investment was her seed money and she built up on it. Now, a little over a year down the road, her investments are worth a few lakh.
Azra too started with just around Rs 30,000. Not only has this amount increased substantially, she even did some investments for her mother-in-law.
7. Set your own rules
Remember, you are nobody's boss. You call the shots.
When I visited Nasreen Merchant in the morning, she was watching CNBC and sipping a cup of coffee. Her mother-in-law then wanted to watch television so Nasreen began surfing. She was not planning on buying or selling that day, so she was quite relaxed.
How does it feel being a trader from a conservative Muslim family?
"Great," is her quick reply. "I work from home, I take my breaks to do namaaz and I take care of my family."
"I also set my own pace and rules," she continues.
Being a Muslim, she cannot gamble and so will not short sell.
Let's say a trader feels that the price of Infosys is going to drop to Rs 1,300. So the trader will go short on Infosys. Which means, the trader will sell Infosys shares for Rs 1,300 now (though he does not own them). And, when the price falls to say, Rs 1,250, he will buy them. This way, he makes a profit.
"Selling a share I don't own is gambling. I am a trader, not a gambler," she asserts.
Neither will she buy the shares of a liquor company, tobacco company or a even media company if it is involved in unethical programming.
At the end of the day, these are just suggestions from smart women who have dared to do something different.
Do remember, though, that equity is risky. If you do decide to jump into it, you could lose a lot. Also remember we are riding a bull run. Things could get nasty if the reverse takes place and the market plummets.
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