Exploring Indian Markets : A pathetic experience

Investing and trading can be fun and addictive. But it depends on how much freedom you have. The financial markets are highly regulated and compliance sensitive entities esp in more developed countries such as USA. As the economy in States is experiencing jitters (and with some other regulatory restrictions), people are exploring the relative plush territories such as the markets in Asia. The most natural choice for most of the international people is to invest in their home countries. Here comes the hitch : Given how these markets are not fully exploited yet, the services providing access to them are equally if not more rudimentary.

I can talk about trying the stunt in Indian markets and this is what I have to say about 'how to start investing in India'. You should be less frustrated if you would know what to expect.

Once you have traded stocks in US, you will get so used to the readily available data for your research, the yahoo/google charts and all the historical information that even searching a stock in India by its numeric scrip code will seem agonizing. And this is just the beginning, you will probably spend days to even find a good site that provides decent historical data and charts. Unless you are a nerd or born stock broker, following the numeric quotes and analyzing without charts is bound to be a pain. Even the official sites for NSE and BSE suck. And if you are lucky, the ICICI charts may load once in a blue moon. This, in addition to being an owl to watch any live market action, can just be the breaking point. After few tiring weeks of surfing, googling, giving up the whole idea and then reconsidering, you may just prepare yourself mentally to trade. Now if you are intelligent enough to open an account with more customer friendly brokerage services, you will be able to do it right away(ICICI is not my definition of customer friendly!). Once you put in the first trade, you will be committed enough to not have a choice but to follow the markets.

Few comments about whatever I have seen till now:
1. Indian markets are in general more volatile.
2. Do a proper groundwork before taking a big risk.
3. Always find out how much is the trading fee for your brokerage service.
4. While transfering money to India, try to factor in the rupee-dollar conversion, it may make a big difference.
5. Day trade is not as easy and lucrative as it sounds/seems.
6. Account opening process for 90% banks in India can be extremely exhausting and lengthy processes, make sure you have found out the details and done comparisons before deciding on one.

I wish I had something substantial to say about the Mutual Funds but alas, I am still researching.

Here are few good sites for researching-
1. Charts - http://www.icharts.in/charts.html
2. Daily news and analysis - http://www.moneycontrol.com/stocksmarketsindia/
3. Mutual Funds - http://www.mutualfundsindia.com/


-A Rookie Stocknut