Contrary to my perception, the common salutation here was not ‘How are you’ or the ilk but yes in a forceful Punjabi accent, ‘Market kidaan?’ (How’s the market?) – The answers would range from overtly optimistic, slipping down to flat.
It’s a world full of numbers – live trading and incentives. If you’ve ever been inside a stock exchange, you would know. Although no live trading goes in this regional stock exchange, it functions as a brokerage under LSE Securities Ltd - the huge building is replete with offices of sub-brokers.
The most glaring thing that I noticed about this office was a strange sense of punctuality and sincerity of almost every employee at work. Now that’s not very common, at least in the public sector offices I have been to. The fledgling economist in me recognizes the beautiful alignment of incentives in this office. It is a stock exchange after all – a place to build fortunes and gambling with rules. It is the self interest in this typical ‘firm’ that makes each employee reach his/her chamber on time – its about incentives and mainly, monetary incentives. And these incentives are not lump-sum, not like a fixed pay at the end of the month which deadens all motivation to work, but on a MINUTE TO MINUTE lively basis. You get daily rewards and returns from this wonderful space called the stock market where funds are channeled from the idle to the industrious and capital gains pour heavily, though on the selected few.
Under my internship, I got a lively exposure into a wide array of things. Apart from attending a 1 hour class everyday in a smart classroom amidst 40- 50 other MBA students by the executives of different departments (clearing, depository participants, IPO, KYC, legal department etc.) on the basic working of all aspects of the stock markets, I also had the opportunity to work with the legal department of the exchange and with who else, but the Sr. GM here. I learnt a lot from my boss - a lively lady who conversed in a lovely Punjabi accent and was such a big motivator. She had spread her charm in the workplace with the effect that most of the officials from the receptionist to the accountants had such a high frequency of smiling. The ‘smile’ I discovered was a permanent client here.
Since this one-to-one attachment with the executive was not a formal part of the structured internship program, I had to figure out work for myself and offer help on whatever I could offer. On the second day, looking into my potential, I was handed over a list of targets to be fulfilled within a week. My work involved preparing a formal brochure for the internship program and figuring out the right combinations of evaluation strategies that the exchange should adopt for interns (from the next year onwards) – lo! Now that was fantastic – I now had to be in the judgement seat and figure out what would be the best incentive for a final year MBA student, say who ‘has’ to do an internship as a part of his boring college project and has no motivation to learn or contribute.
Another task I was allotted was to work on the Annual Report of the exchange – designing a cover page, I discovered needed a lot of economic and financial insight into the working of a firm over a year. I contributed my set of suggestions for both the programs at the end of program which were well received.
Not to forget, the cubicle I worked in had a wonderful occupant – the legal officer of the exchange who guided me into this new world. I discovered the legal procedures involved in the financial sector and working of the system.
As a last leg of the internship, interns were required to learn live trading and understand the analytics of the same. Well, that was simply WOW! Guess what? You push a button, and that’s it – the share is bought, another button, it is sold. You press F3 twice and you can view all the bids in your window pane. A sub-broker’s chamber is such a live and a bit confusing place initially. 5 sets of sleek desktop computers with different markets opened on each one, 6 sets of landline telephones with a vexing 8-calls-per- minute frequency, a TV showing live stocks and market news – that goes from 9.15 to 3.30, till the stock market finally closes.
The most interesting part of the internship apart from the formal learning was the vital insight into a workplace and the informal contacts I ended up building. The conversations over lunch at the set of tables with the light pink financial newspapers serving as the table cloth, the neat cutlery that would await the hard working employees at the strike of 1. 30 and not-to-mention the vibrant guffaws and informal exchanges of experiences at this time – it was an enthralling experience.
I guess, I receive my dividend from the 20 day long internship everyday - in the joy of reading Economic Times every morning. The pink newspaper is no longer a monotonous gibberish – it makes a lot more sense. I no longer have a ‘market-phobia’, so to say – it’s the ‘market magic’, I feel :)
