I came across an article of Business Standard which said “Brokerages are stepping up the gas on internet trading, targeting young office-goers and home keepers, to boost their trading volumes”
After a brief thought I had a few questions in my mind!!
Why should Brokerage houses target the youth when they already have big investors pumping in crore’s of rupees regularly ?
the 15 -30 age group is the largest population of India. They are the future of this country. They may not have too much money at this point ( a few of them do, like our ceo) but are open to the following things-
Risk Taking Capacity –
the Youth are more open to taking risks at this pointy in their life as (in most cases) they donot have to support their family.
They have more spending power than before, they earn and spend their own money (self Funded, like a few of us in this office.ïŠ)
9% per year on FD (Fixed Deposits) Are you kidding me when you can conservatively earn upto 20% (maybe more) per year with some risk.
But Why are Brokerages going online?
Internet trading volumes account for 88-89 per cent of the total turnover for India Infoline said R Venkataraman, director, India Infoline.
The educated youth is online. About 60% of total Online Indian population is below 30.
Believe me the youth is really interested in the Stocks and finance.
A simple ‘BSE’ search on Orkut will tell you what I mean. There are over 56,000 users in one single Community alone (and there is no porn content inside unlike most communities) . There are over 120 stock related communities Some of which are also providing free Stock Tips on a daily, hourly basis.
Industry observers expect online trading volumes to make rapid strides over the next three years to corner 50 per cent of the total turnover
Facebook has a application (third party) that allows users to trade online, its fictious money but its good learning. The app also provides daily info on –
Net worth rank
Percentage rank
Recently placed orders
Top Five gainers & losers (users)
Also users can comment and share thoughts.
What are the Initiatives taken by government/Corporates to encourage young investing ?
Mumbai University plans to introduce a three-year B.Com degree course in Financial Markets.
Vijay Khole, Vice-Chancellor, Mumbai University, says, “the economy is booming and several sectors in commercial transactions are increasing and emerging – we need to provide trained professionals/manpower because the industry demands it.”
Soon there will be subjects based on mutual funds in Junior colleges which would provide initial education for students explaining the prospects and drawbacks of investing.
MoneyControl a famous Stock news portal had launched a game for investors where they can trade fictitious money, buy and sell stocks. The name of the website is called moneybhai.com
khelostocks.com a new Indian startup has also provided a platform for young and new users to learn about the stock market and give a feel. Its better to loose fake money than real. it also helps an evolving investor to experience the dynamics of real time stocks trading at zero cost and zero risk
Anil Kaul, director and CEO (retail) of ICICI direct said “We share a seamless platform with the ICICI Bank and as a consequence of this, we have entered a lot of sectors in the last 5 years where we met the kind of demographic profile (the younger age group) that we target”
So… what have I learnt?
India is a emerging market.
The youth is the biggest population. (online and offline)
The youth are internet savvy. and they are the future.
They may not have a lot money right now but later on they will and broking houses can create loyalty on at an early stage.
They like to take risks and also earn enough money to save in mutual funds.
The Government and Companies realize the potential and are taking initiative by providing education and also providing games which provides a real feel for trading.
The youth realizes (or eventually will ) that its not a Childs game to make money and one does require education and good advisors (brokers)
The internet is a great place for advertisers to be as they already have their TG and know where and how to get them.
And most of all, I would rather loose Fake money thank real 
