Bulls or bears, mastering market is in demand

The bears may have got the better of the bulls on Dalal Street but for the money-spinning Gujaratis, it's no dampener.

They just shift base from share brokers' terminals to coaching classrooms, to master the moves of the market.

Buoyed by the bull run, coaching classes offering market-related courses have mushroomed in Gujarat and Mumbai over the last three years.

These include both private coaching classes and colleges offering courses on markets, commodity markets and mutual funds. The recent fall has led to more students, especially housewives and college students, enroll into these classes.

Ahmedabad-based chartered accountant SN Valera realised the business potential of providing market 'gyan' about three years ago. While continuing his practice, he started Ashapura Enterprise, which teaches theory, techniques and the practicals of the market.

"I worked as an adviser to a portfolio management firm. As some of my clients insisted, I took a plunge in this business," says Valera, adding the volatility on the bourses has not impacted the inflow of students.

On the contrary, the market crash has led to more enquiries.

HL Center of Professional Education started a market-related course two years ago. "The current batch has 20 students. The syllabus is on operating in capital markets, commodity and mutual funds business and investment. We have hired professionals as faculty. We also take students to terminals for hands-on training," says GA Pathak, its director.

Seven-year-old Share Gurukul, a national chain involved in teaching of stock market trading, too has seen the number of students, especially housewives, go up tremendously. It teaches arbitrage, technicals and commodity trading.

"We provide training to over 100 students in Ahmedabad, which is a phenomenal increase over the previous years. There are so many enquires about different courses, but arbitrage is high in demand," says Pramod Kumar, branch manager, Share Gurukul, Ahmedabad.

Last October another Ahmedabad-based firm, the Institute of Computer Accountants (ICA), started coaching on stock markets, commodity markets and mutual funds offering two courses "" Stock Career and Stock Business.

"We focus on practical operations like back office, live terminal, technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Our course offers dual benefits. One can get a job as a dealer of stock, derivative and commodity terminal with any broker, starting with a salary between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. One can start own business after training," said Manoj Kamboj, center head, ICA, said.

Udich Patel, a businessman in his 20s who returned to India from the US, attends Share Gurukul.

"When I returned to India for good, I had very little idea about the Indian stock market. I joined a class and have learnt a lot since."