Believe in your heart that something
wonderful is about to happen.
Love your life.
Believe in your own power,
and in your own potential,
and your own innate goodness.
Wake every morning with the awe
of just being alive.
Discover each day the magnificent,
awesome beauty in the world.
Explore and embrace life
in yourself and in everyone
you see each day.
Reach within to find your own specialness.
Amaze yourself and rouse those
around you to the potential
of each new day.
Don't be afraid to admit
you're less than perfect;
this is the essence of our humanity.
Let those who love you help you;
Trust enough to be able to take.
Look with hope to the horizon of today,
for today is all we truly have.
Live this day well.
Let a little sun out as well as in.
Create your own rainbows.
Be open to all your possibilities,
and all miracles.
Always believe in miracles.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Positive Thoughts...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSITIVE THOUGHTS...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thinking aloud helps solve problems faster: Study
Thinking aloud helps solve problems faster: Study
Having difficulty in solving a mathematical problem? Just think out loud, as scientists have claimed talking aloud helps one solve complex problems faster and more accurately.
According to the study by Spains University of Granada, people who talk out loud to think through their maths problems are able to solve them faster and have more chance of getting the right answer.
"Those students who think aloud while solving a mathematical problem can solve it faster and have more possibilities of finding the right solution that those who do not do it," said lead researcher Prof Jose Luis Villegas Castellanos of the University of the Andes, Venezuela.
"Likewise, drawing or making a pictorial representation relating to the also contributed to its solution," he said.
The research is contrary to the old-fashioned theory of studying in silence, classrooms should be full of the noise of students tackling their problems out loud, the Telegraph reported.
The study, published in the Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, focussed on university maths students trying to answer complex mathematics problems.
Those who detailed their thinking process aloud had more chance of answering the same question correctly as those who did not talk about their problem solving plan, the researchers found.
"The ability in the management of representations such as talking aloud or drawing the problems is closely related to the success in problems solution," Castellanos said.
Having difficulty in solving a mathematical problem? Just think out loud, as scientists have claimed talking aloud helps one solve complex problems faster and more accurately.
According to the study by Spains University of Granada, people who talk out loud to think through their maths problems are able to solve them faster and have more chance of getting the right answer.
"Those students who think aloud while solving a mathematical problem can solve it faster and have more possibilities of finding the right solution that those who do not do it," said lead researcher Prof Jose Luis Villegas Castellanos of the University of the Andes, Venezuela.
"Likewise, drawing or making a pictorial representation relating to the also contributed to its solution," he said.
The research is contrary to the old-fashioned theory of studying in silence, classrooms should be full of the noise of students tackling their problems out loud, the Telegraph reported.
The study, published in the Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, focussed on university maths students trying to answer complex mathematics problems.
Those who detailed their thinking process aloud had more chance of answering the same question correctly as those who did not talk about their problem solving plan, the researchers found.
"The ability in the management of representations such as talking aloud or drawing the problems is closely related to the success in problems solution," Castellanos said.
2010 set to be year of indices trading
2010 set to be year of indices trading
A fixed-income index, a volatility index and indices of commodities and weather (rainfall, temperature and moisture) will be available for trading from 2010.
An index is an indicator of market movement and a hedging tool. Currently, trading happens only in equity indices. The National Stock Exchange, which is the world's third-largest derivatives trading platform, is developing an index of fixed-income securities in a joint venture with Standard & Poor's.
Market participants say trading in a fixed income index will be successful once interest rate futures, an illiquid instrument, gains momentum. A fixed-income index reflects movement in interest rates.
"We are developing some more indices through our JV with NSE, called IISL," Deven Sharma, chairman, Crisil, said.
NSE is working on launching VIX, developed under licence from S&P. S&P developed VIX for the Chicago exchange, too.
Volatility is decided based on trading in options contracts. "Volatility is inversely related to the market. In a range-bound market, chances are that volatility will come down if the market is at the lower end of the range and a trader can short VIX once the market moves up," said Sidharth Bhamre, head (derivatives), Angel Broking. The volatility index could also be used as a hedging instrument by index traders, he added.
Trading in commodity and weather indices would be a reality once amendments to the Forwards Contract Regulations (FCR) are passed in Parliament in the coming months. If an investors/trader wants to invest in commodities, but doesn't know which commodity would go up, he could buy into an index. For example, in case of drought, agro commodity prices tend to move up and, hence, one can buy into the agri index.
"Existing commodity exchanges like MCX and NCDEX are prepared to launch trading in indices. If all go well, commodity index trading will start in the early second half of 2010," P K Singhal, deputy managing director of MCX, said.
"It will help in diversification of portfolio and offer a broader basket to hedge, using a single product. Globally, institutional participants such as banks and asset management companies hedge their risk in commodities using indices, as they can select the structure and composition of the index," he added.
A weather index is useful for various industries, apart from farmers and traders. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has several weather indices like rainfall index, temperature index and even moisture index.
Commodities and industries can hedge on such products. For example, cement sales come down if rainfall is high, so cement manufacturers can go bullish on the rainfall index (expecting more rain) and make money there, which will compensate for lower sales in cement due to slower construction.
If the monsoon turns deficient, they will lose money on the rainfall index, but will get compensated by higher cement sales, as construction work will be on fast track. Fertiliser companies take a reverse call, as their sales go up if rainfall is higher. In many cases, quantum of rainfall or temperature is important and, therefore, trading in such indices helps.
Ice cream sales can fall if temperature is low. The wheat crop benefits if winter is cooler. In case of traders, they can simply go long in such indices if they feel the monsoon will be better.
Indices also provide investment opportunities in commodities, as actual buying and selling commodities require investors to go through various formalities like tax and deliveries.
A fixed-income index, a volatility index and indices of commodities and weather (rainfall, temperature and moisture) will be available for trading from 2010.
An index is an indicator of market movement and a hedging tool. Currently, trading happens only in equity indices. The National Stock Exchange, which is the world's third-largest derivatives trading platform, is developing an index of fixed-income securities in a joint venture with Standard & Poor's.
Market participants say trading in a fixed income index will be successful once interest rate futures, an illiquid instrument, gains momentum. A fixed-income index reflects movement in interest rates.
"We are developing some more indices through our JV with NSE, called IISL," Deven Sharma, chairman, Crisil, said.
NSE is working on launching VIX, developed under licence from S&P. S&P developed VIX for the Chicago exchange, too.
Volatility is decided based on trading in options contracts. "Volatility is inversely related to the market. In a range-bound market, chances are that volatility will come down if the market is at the lower end of the range and a trader can short VIX once the market moves up," said Sidharth Bhamre, head (derivatives), Angel Broking. The volatility index could also be used as a hedging instrument by index traders, he added.
Trading in commodity and weather indices would be a reality once amendments to the Forwards Contract Regulations (FCR) are passed in Parliament in the coming months. If an investors/trader wants to invest in commodities, but doesn't know which commodity would go up, he could buy into an index. For example, in case of drought, agro commodity prices tend to move up and, hence, one can buy into the agri index.
"Existing commodity exchanges like MCX and NCDEX are prepared to launch trading in indices. If all go well, commodity index trading will start in the early second half of 2010," P K Singhal, deputy managing director of MCX, said.
"It will help in diversification of portfolio and offer a broader basket to hedge, using a single product. Globally, institutional participants such as banks and asset management companies hedge their risk in commodities using indices, as they can select the structure and composition of the index," he added.
A weather index is useful for various industries, apart from farmers and traders. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has several weather indices like rainfall index, temperature index and even moisture index.
Commodities and industries can hedge on such products. For example, cement sales come down if rainfall is high, so cement manufacturers can go bullish on the rainfall index (expecting more rain) and make money there, which will compensate for lower sales in cement due to slower construction.
If the monsoon turns deficient, they will lose money on the rainfall index, but will get compensated by higher cement sales, as construction work will be on fast track. Fertiliser companies take a reverse call, as their sales go up if rainfall is higher. In many cases, quantum of rainfall or temperature is important and, therefore, trading in such indices helps.
Ice cream sales can fall if temperature is low. The wheat crop benefits if winter is cooler. In case of traders, they can simply go long in such indices if they feel the monsoon will be better.
Indices also provide investment opportunities in commodities, as actual buying and selling commodities require investors to go through various formalities like tax and deliveries.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Java for Quant Development?
Java is an all-purpose language. Check out jQuantlib and Marketcetera to get started.
All quant code in banks is in C++ , you will have better chances of a getting a
job if you do. Why software technicians keep asking the same question and always the answering the same things.
Quant job = C++ mastered. Most quants use Python for tools development & C++ for core apps don't kid yourself. Primary focus on performance is applicable to high frequency trading and market making systems.C++ is not always the fastest, in fact its predecessor C wins almost always hands down. Even there the bottle neck is networking and messaging not computation.
C++ code tends to be harder to understand and to express a mathematical problem in. Quants will find it that functional languages such as Haskell let them think about the problem rather than about language syntax.
Not that Java is that much better in this department as it yields verbose code. Java however has a huge advantage existing libraries and of a very robust software development toolbox for unit testing, continuous integration, refactoring and build process. The last one in my particular issue with C/C++. Fighting linker errors and dealing with messy makefiles create so much noise that performance gains pale in comparison.
If anyone here has a proven "system" for working with large code base of C/C++ code including third party libraries please post.
I must be in a bad dream? Or many of you are just confused in general about how things work on Wall St. Many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance work done today by the top buy side firms who are trading proprietary capital use C++ for core systems development. C++ will usually make up a bulk of the code base at these shops. Think stat/arb desks and market making firms. I can't think of any arb desk or MM firms today who has built their core systems on Java that is actually profitable.
Many algos developed at many firms for client facing order flow like DMA, dark pools, smart order routing etc.. Are usually developed in Java, C#, .NET etc.. and many of the tools and GUi around these systems. There are many reasons for this like better interoperability between GUI and back-end systems, larger pool of lower quality developers, client facing tools usually require much more customizations and rapid changes for client needs speed usually isn't the #1 priority compared to feature set.
Many firms today employ the same people an everyone is using very similar models in the end it's all about speed.
Plain and simple C++ allows a skilled programmer to squeeze much more optomizations out of his code than he could if using Java or C#.
Rodrick what you say is correct but is biased toward electronic markets like equities, futures etc. If you venture a little bit out of there into OTC traded fixed income and fixed income derivatives speed does not matter nearly as much. Sweet dreams.
Definition (wiki): "A quantitative analyst is a person who works in finance using numerical or quantitative techniques."
There is life outside Wall St(US) ;-). Also, there is front end, back end, trading, risk management, quants working for hedge funds, for trader, for rating agencies, for insurance companies, from high frequency to macro-economics, from research to day-to-day business and so on.
I don't understand this quant == trading (front end) + C++
Besides, all the statements without facts make discussion complicated. (E.g. Java is faster than C++, ok but the actual questions is how much).
Rodrick, again, if performance is the 'Key' for making money why you don't use assembler ? why C++ ?
In reality, JAVA or C# has capable to substitute C/C++, but since on Wall St. many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance application were written by C/C++(as Rodrick mentioned as well), therefore, it isn't necessary to spend money to convert all codes into JAVA or C#. JAVA is essential designed for web-application, C# inherited lots of new feature both of C++ and JAVA have(Initially for MSFT want to give a capability for all other type code converted into) . Look into JAVA & C#, they are just similar as C/C++ but adding some more features only.
If you pay attention to today's financial application, you might be able to find out certain new financial application's baseline code is done through C#.
Answering various questions:
David, you are right to ask the % difference, and as someone who used to review programming language implementations for PC Magazine, I can tell you with some authority that you cant get a good simple number.
The problem is that it's a differential equation with boundary conditions, and subjective.
In almost all cases, Java could be faster than C++
It isn't because the people who build the compilers and JVMs don't really take performance all that seriously.
This is unintuitive I believe ?
Fact is that C++ compilers waste a lot of clock cycles because they cannot know the nature of the machine they will run on. In fact you have to tell it what processor at compilation, and subtleties down to various numbers and cores / CPU cache can only be expressed by unpleasant code.
JVMs *could* do this because they know the machine they are running on.
But they don't.
The maths comes in because we have two time terms here.
Time to develop the code and time to run it.
Most code is simply irrelevant to the execution time, so if you free up the programmer from certain tasks which consume his effort, he has time to write faster code.
That I think answers the assembler vs C++ question, I believe the CQF is the only finance course that covers x86 assembler at all, and even we don't do al that much.
But.of course I can stick bits of assembler into my C++, which is something I do very sparingly, and if you find that a headhunter is writing code that goes several times faster than yours, consider despair or more education :)
So to test Java vs C++ properly you'd have to apply a time constraint to the development teams. Also you'd need to have equivalent skill in the teams.
Although Java has some features that some feel make it easier to develop, there is a surprising lack of objective evidence.
Partly I think this is because most of Java's "easier" features can seriously get in the way when you really care about speed. When I delete an object, I want the fucker dead *now*. At the limit I want to be able to tell the compiler how to translate my code, and if necessary I want to access useful operating system features.
Another factor is of course that hardware is typically cheaper than programmer time, meaning that a few cores can do more for you than changing language.
Back when I had the chance to get input into the new version of Excel, I fumbled the case for making VBA multi threaded, sorry. The reason I cared is that VBA is the 2nd most important quant language after C++, and although Excel >= 2007 is threaded, you only have one VBA instance :(
I believe the fact that VBA is #2 supports my case rather well. One can quickly knock together some code that mostly does what you want in an acceptable time. It interfaces nicely with spreadsheets (something Java doesn't), and can talk to every data source on the planet.
But Java programmers are cheaper, hard to quantify this is precisely, since on average they are less skilled and experienced, but a three year experienced Java programmer may easily be on 1/4 that of the C++ guy.
If anything, that ratio is increasing
This alters the economics. Tasks that do not require advanced techniques or high performance can be done as well in Java / C# as in C++, but more cheaply.
This is why banks use packs of cheap Indian programmers for housekeeping IT.
I didn't mention I used to be a CIO did I ?
I mention this because there is a clear division in the advice I give here.
Firstly, if you are a CIO, using Java allows you to buy cheap, medium quality programming time overseas. It also provides a good blame sink for the inevitable screw ups.
As a CIO you have no interest whatever in providing efficient reliable systems, indeed the techniques necessary to do so will hurt your political position.
But if you are writing code, Java is your enemy.
The function (supply, demand, substitability) = bad.price
All quant code in banks is in C++ , you will have better chances of a getting a
job if you do. Why software technicians keep asking the same question and always the answering the same things.
Quant job = C++ mastered. Most quants use Python for tools development & C++ for core apps don't kid yourself. Primary focus on performance is applicable to high frequency trading and market making systems.C++ is not always the fastest, in fact its predecessor C wins almost always hands down. Even there the bottle neck is networking and messaging not computation.
C++ code tends to be harder to understand and to express a mathematical problem in. Quants will find it that functional languages such as Haskell let them think about the problem rather than about language syntax.
Not that Java is that much better in this department as it yields verbose code. Java however has a huge advantage existing libraries and of a very robust software development toolbox for unit testing, continuous integration, refactoring and build process. The last one in my particular issue with C/C++. Fighting linker errors and dealing with messy makefiles create so much noise that performance gains pale in comparison.
If anyone here has a proven "system" for working with large code base of C/C++ code including third party libraries please post.
I must be in a bad dream? Or many of you are just confused in general about how things work on Wall St. Many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance work done today by the top buy side firms who are trading proprietary capital use C++ for core systems development. C++ will usually make up a bulk of the code base at these shops. Think stat/arb desks and market making firms. I can't think of any arb desk or MM firms today who has built their core systems on Java that is actually profitable.
Many algos developed at many firms for client facing order flow like DMA, dark pools, smart order routing etc.. Are usually developed in Java, C#, .NET etc.. and many of the tools and GUi around these systems. There are many reasons for this like better interoperability between GUI and back-end systems, larger pool of lower quality developers, client facing tools usually require much more customizations and rapid changes for client needs speed usually isn't the #1 priority compared to feature set.
Many firms today employ the same people an everyone is using very similar models in the end it's all about speed.
Plain and simple C++ allows a skilled programmer to squeeze much more optomizations out of his code than he could if using Java or C#.
Rodrick what you say is correct but is biased toward electronic markets like equities, futures etc. If you venture a little bit out of there into OTC traded fixed income and fixed income derivatives speed does not matter nearly as much. Sweet dreams.
Definition (wiki): "A quantitative analyst is a person who works in finance using numerical or quantitative techniques."
There is life outside Wall St(US) ;-). Also, there is front end, back end, trading, risk management, quants working for hedge funds, for trader, for rating agencies, for insurance companies, from high frequency to macro-economics, from research to day-to-day business and so on.
I don't understand this quant == trading (front end) + C++
Besides, all the statements without facts make discussion complicated. (E.g. Java is faster than C++, ok but the actual questions is how much).
Rodrick, again, if performance is the 'Key' for making money why you don't use assembler ? why C++ ?
In reality, JAVA or C# has capable to substitute C/C++, but since on Wall St. many sophisticated quantitative and computational finance application were written by C/C++(as Rodrick mentioned as well), therefore, it isn't necessary to spend money to convert all codes into JAVA or C#. JAVA is essential designed for web-application, C# inherited lots of new feature both of C++ and JAVA have(Initially for MSFT want to give a capability for all other type code converted into) . Look into JAVA & C#, they are just similar as C/C++ but adding some more features only.
If you pay attention to today's financial application, you might be able to find out certain new financial application's baseline code is done through C#.
Answering various questions:
David, you are right to ask the % difference, and as someone who used to review programming language implementations for PC Magazine, I can tell you with some authority that you cant get a good simple number.
The problem is that it's a differential equation with boundary conditions, and subjective.
In almost all cases, Java could be faster than C++
It isn't because the people who build the compilers and JVMs don't really take performance all that seriously.
This is unintuitive I believe ?
Fact is that C++ compilers waste a lot of clock cycles because they cannot know the nature of the machine they will run on. In fact you have to tell it what processor at compilation, and subtleties down to various numbers and cores / CPU cache can only be expressed by unpleasant code.
JVMs *could* do this because they know the machine they are running on.
But they don't.
The maths comes in because we have two time terms here.
Time to develop the code and time to run it.
Most code is simply irrelevant to the execution time, so if you free up the programmer from certain tasks which consume his effort, he has time to write faster code.
That I think answers the assembler vs C++ question, I believe the CQF is the only finance course that covers x86 assembler at all, and even we don't do al that much.
But.of course I can stick bits of assembler into my C++, which is something I do very sparingly, and if you find that a headhunter is writing code that goes several times faster than yours, consider despair or more education :)
So to test Java vs C++ properly you'd have to apply a time constraint to the development teams. Also you'd need to have equivalent skill in the teams.
Although Java has some features that some feel make it easier to develop, there is a surprising lack of objective evidence.
Partly I think this is because most of Java's "easier" features can seriously get in the way when you really care about speed. When I delete an object, I want the fucker dead *now*. At the limit I want to be able to tell the compiler how to translate my code, and if necessary I want to access useful operating system features.
Another factor is of course that hardware is typically cheaper than programmer time, meaning that a few cores can do more for you than changing language.
Back when I had the chance to get input into the new version of Excel, I fumbled the case for making VBA multi threaded, sorry. The reason I cared is that VBA is the 2nd most important quant language after C++, and although Excel >= 2007 is threaded, you only have one VBA instance :(
I believe the fact that VBA is #2 supports my case rather well. One can quickly knock together some code that mostly does what you want in an acceptable time. It interfaces nicely with spreadsheets (something Java doesn't), and can talk to every data source on the planet.
But Java programmers are cheaper, hard to quantify this is precisely, since on average they are less skilled and experienced, but a three year experienced Java programmer may easily be on 1/4 that of the C++ guy.
If anything, that ratio is increasing
This alters the economics. Tasks that do not require advanced techniques or high performance can be done as well in Java / C# as in C++, but more cheaply.
This is why banks use packs of cheap Indian programmers for housekeeping IT.
I didn't mention I used to be a CIO did I ?
I mention this because there is a clear division in the advice I give here.
Firstly, if you are a CIO, using Java allows you to buy cheap, medium quality programming time overseas. It also provides a good blame sink for the inevitable screw ups.
As a CIO you have no interest whatever in providing efficient reliable systems, indeed the techniques necessary to do so will hurt your political position.
But if you are writing code, Java is your enemy.
The function (supply, demand, substitability) = bad.price
Indians are determined to pursue the CFA charter
'Indians are determined to pursue the CFA charter'
How many Indian students apply for the CFA Programme every year? Has it increased/ decreased over the past few years?
In fiscal year 2009, India ranked fourth with the number of registrations for the CFA exam rising to nearly 14,500 (including those who gave level I exams in December and level I, II and III students in June 2009). A record 5500 students are registered for the level I CFA exam to be held in Mumbai on December 6, 2009. Despite the uncertainty for Indian candidates seeking the CFA designation over the last few years, the number of registrations from India has increased steadily. This growth shows how determined Indian candidates are to pursue the CFA charter.
What are the CFA Institute's plans in India?
Currently, the CFA Institute has 108 CFA Programme partners worldwide, with 25 in the APAC Region. Once the legal situation in India is resolved, we look forward to partnering with strong Indian finance programmes. We have signed a MoU with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in June 2009 to jointly organise financial and investment educational training programs and research in India. We have already held a journalist training, exam development training, and a workshop on derivatives. We also hope that, barring legal constraint, we can establish an office in India to support our candidates and members on the ground in the future.
How do you see the role of the CFA evolving in today's dynamic world?
While the skill and knowledge base of CFA charterholders, the investment tools and applications they use, may be evolving according to the changing market needs and new financial innovations, their primary role has not and will not change. It is essentially to act at all times in the best interest of investors, placing investors' interests before their firms', and before their own.
Broadly speaking, CFA charterholders study markets, trends and stocks, and analyse them to provide insightful opinions on buying or selling companies/stocks and even make investment decisions. Sameer Bakhru, Managing Partner, Pan Venture Consultants gives us more insight. "Essentially they can work on the buy side or sell side, valuing, selling or creating investments for companies or investors," he says.
Buy side refers to a group of people who buy into investments. They include mutual funds (such as Fidelity, Franklin Templeton), which buy into listed companies and private equity funds (such as Chrys Capital, Baring) that buy into unlisted companies.
Sell side refers to companies that sell investments to other companies or individuals, or manage client accounts. These may typically be investment management companies or brokerage outfits (that sell stocks to investors) such as HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities or India Bulls.
Core finance division/ treasury departments of MNCs also hire CFAs who would manage the company's existing cash assets via short and medium-term investments in the treasury. In the M&A division, he/she would evaluate acquisition/takeover targets, and manage them during the M&A process.
One could be working as an analyst researching companies in a particular sector (say telecoms), valuing them and zeroing in on the target share price of the companies. An analyst's role revolves around valuation of the companies he targets -- the higher the expected share price viz the current price, the greater are the returns expected out of investing in that company, Bakhru adds.
Investment managers study listed companies (if they work in a mutual fund) or unlisted companies (if they work in a PE fund). They manage a certain sum of money on a regular basis and take buy and sell decisions in the stock market. Wealth managers/relationship managers guide investors on what investments to make and operate independently or work with large private banks such as Citibank or HSBC.
There are only about 400-500 CFA (USA) charterholders in India. The number looks set to rise with 5,500 students registered for the December level I exam. The qualification is being increasingly sought for its credibility, specialisation and the global recognition that comes with it, though it is tough to attain it. With the global economic downturn receding, market sentiments picking up and the financial sector set to regain its momentum, the future surely looks bright for CFAs in India.
How many Indian students apply for the CFA Programme every year? Has it increased/ decreased over the past few years?
In fiscal year 2009, India ranked fourth with the number of registrations for the CFA exam rising to nearly 14,500 (including those who gave level I exams in December and level I, II and III students in June 2009). A record 5500 students are registered for the level I CFA exam to be held in Mumbai on December 6, 2009. Despite the uncertainty for Indian candidates seeking the CFA designation over the last few years, the number of registrations from India has increased steadily. This growth shows how determined Indian candidates are to pursue the CFA charter.
What are the CFA Institute's plans in India?
Currently, the CFA Institute has 108 CFA Programme partners worldwide, with 25 in the APAC Region. Once the legal situation in India is resolved, we look forward to partnering with strong Indian finance programmes. We have signed a MoU with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in June 2009 to jointly organise financial and investment educational training programs and research in India. We have already held a journalist training, exam development training, and a workshop on derivatives. We also hope that, barring legal constraint, we can establish an office in India to support our candidates and members on the ground in the future.
How do you see the role of the CFA evolving in today's dynamic world?
While the skill and knowledge base of CFA charterholders, the investment tools and applications they use, may be evolving according to the changing market needs and new financial innovations, their primary role has not and will not change. It is essentially to act at all times in the best interest of investors, placing investors' interests before their firms', and before their own.
Broadly speaking, CFA charterholders study markets, trends and stocks, and analyse them to provide insightful opinions on buying or selling companies/stocks and even make investment decisions. Sameer Bakhru, Managing Partner, Pan Venture Consultants gives us more insight. "Essentially they can work on the buy side or sell side, valuing, selling or creating investments for companies or investors," he says.
Buy side refers to a group of people who buy into investments. They include mutual funds (such as Fidelity, Franklin Templeton), which buy into listed companies and private equity funds (such as Chrys Capital, Baring) that buy into unlisted companies.
Sell side refers to companies that sell investments to other companies or individuals, or manage client accounts. These may typically be investment management companies or brokerage outfits (that sell stocks to investors) such as HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities or India Bulls.
Core finance division/ treasury departments of MNCs also hire CFAs who would manage the company's existing cash assets via short and medium-term investments in the treasury. In the M&A division, he/she would evaluate acquisition/takeover targets, and manage them during the M&A process.
One could be working as an analyst researching companies in a particular sector (say telecoms), valuing them and zeroing in on the target share price of the companies. An analyst's role revolves around valuation of the companies he targets -- the higher the expected share price viz the current price, the greater are the returns expected out of investing in that company, Bakhru adds.
Investment managers study listed companies (if they work in a mutual fund) or unlisted companies (if they work in a PE fund). They manage a certain sum of money on a regular basis and take buy and sell decisions in the stock market. Wealth managers/relationship managers guide investors on what investments to make and operate independently or work with large private banks such as Citibank or HSBC.
There are only about 400-500 CFA (USA) charterholders in India. The number looks set to rise with 5,500 students registered for the December level I exam. The qualification is being increasingly sought for its credibility, specialisation and the global recognition that comes with it, though it is tough to attain it. With the global economic downturn receding, market sentiments picking up and the financial sector set to regain its momentum, the future surely looks bright for CFAs in India.
This student's charitable work spans 26 countries
This student's charitable work spans 26 countries
Omprakash, a resident in a home for the destitute run by Mother Teresa's [ Images ] Missionaries of Charity in New Delhi [ Images ], had a number of health problems, many of them due to a stroke he had suffered 30 years ago. Yet he looked forward to each day since the stroke, he told an 18-year-old American student, William J Oppenheim III.
"He said he felt he was in paradise each day because the nuns took such good care of him," William recalled last week, soon after he was named among 32 United States Rhodes scholars, about how he came to name a foundation after Omprakash.
The visit to the charity home over five years ago had a profound impact on William and a few friends who were volunteering in India. He had taken a year off after graduating from high school to teach English in a small school in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh [ Images ], India, for three months.
"On our last day in India, we volunteered at the Mother Teresa Home for the Dying and Destitute in Delhi, and that's how I came to know Omprakash," he recalled. "There were just about six nuns there, caring for 300 physically and mentally disabled people. The living conditions at the home were far from what most people -- at least in America -- would call ideal, but the nuns and doctors cared for the residents deeply. Suddenly, my friends and I could feel that money and bureaucracy were not any more the most ingredients in the recipe for positive social change. It also became apparent to us the human-to-human interaction was crucial for the success of any kind of volunteer work."
They also felt that "by letting the voices of people like Omprakash resonate amongst our friends and families in America and elsewhere, we could share the sense of humility and gratitude that this man inspired in us," he said.
The foundation he would start with a handful of friends would eliminate middlemen who charged a fee to find volunteer opportunities.
"Some of these agencies that send volunteers abroad charge as much as $5,000 per person," he said. "Just imagine where that money would go."
Today, The Omprakash Foundation (www.omprakash.org) links for-free volunteer teachers with more than 100 grassroots educational projects in 26 countries including India, Vietnam, Peru, Nigeria and Ghana. One project is run by the M Venkatarangaiya Foundation (www.mvfindia.in), an eight-year-old organisation started in Andhra Pradesh that helps children in more than 10 Indian states. It fights child labour, offering the children residential 'bridge camps' where they receive free education until they are ready to enter government schools.
The Future Leaders and Women's Development programmes run by Health Inc in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] recently received $17,230 from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, through the Foundation.
Also in Ladakh, the Springdales School received last year $700 to build a library to store the books it received, as part of the Foundation's book distribution project.
William, an alumni of Bowdoin College, Maine, who will study international education at Oxford, said he does not take any money to run the website or for anything else connected with his volunteer work.
"If you write a check, we transfer 100 percent of that money to Peru. Or India," he said. "We offer an ever-expanding database of grassroots educational projects with which we have established personal relationships. Our content is user-generated: As people young and old travel the world to volunteer. They build relationships with non-government agencies, schools and charity foundations. We invite them to bring these educational projects into the Omprakash network."
The model the New Canaan, Connecticut-based Foundation uses is largely the result of the encounters William had in India.
"We learned soon after starting this foundation that volunteers did not have to go through organisations that charge high fees for admission into structured, pre-arranged 'volunteer trips'," he said. "We worked hard to connect with organisations where we could volunteer directly. During our subsequent trips, we were becoming more aware of another problem: Many educational organisations in India were eager to receive volunteers and other resources, but did not know how to seek that help."
The third problem the foundation faced stemmed from the discovery that many potential volunteers and donors did not know the specific needs of the educational projects. Thus, humanitarian efforts were often doomed to be thoroughly de-humanised by the bureaucratic mechanics of macro-level development.
The Omprakash Foundation, which apart from connecting volunteers also facilitates donations over $250,000 a year, he said, does not offer any guide service to escort volunteers or donors to any countries. The website says: 'But we offer our advice and encouragement to young Americans looking to broaden their perspectives by entering a foreign community and forging relationships without the filter of an organised travel group. We strongly believe that this effort of ours will be eye-opening and intensely educational for both American volunteers and the foreign communities that they will serve.'
Omprakash, a resident in a home for the destitute run by Mother Teresa's [ Images ] Missionaries of Charity in New Delhi [ Images ], had a number of health problems, many of them due to a stroke he had suffered 30 years ago. Yet he looked forward to each day since the stroke, he told an 18-year-old American student, William J Oppenheim III.
"He said he felt he was in paradise each day because the nuns took such good care of him," William recalled last week, soon after he was named among 32 United States Rhodes scholars, about how he came to name a foundation after Omprakash.
The visit to the charity home over five years ago had a profound impact on William and a few friends who were volunteering in India. He had taken a year off after graduating from high school to teach English in a small school in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh [ Images ], India, for three months.
"On our last day in India, we volunteered at the Mother Teresa Home for the Dying and Destitute in Delhi, and that's how I came to know Omprakash," he recalled. "There were just about six nuns there, caring for 300 physically and mentally disabled people. The living conditions at the home were far from what most people -- at least in America -- would call ideal, but the nuns and doctors cared for the residents deeply. Suddenly, my friends and I could feel that money and bureaucracy were not any more the most ingredients in the recipe for positive social change. It also became apparent to us the human-to-human interaction was crucial for the success of any kind of volunteer work."
They also felt that "by letting the voices of people like Omprakash resonate amongst our friends and families in America and elsewhere, we could share the sense of humility and gratitude that this man inspired in us," he said.
The foundation he would start with a handful of friends would eliminate middlemen who charged a fee to find volunteer opportunities.
"Some of these agencies that send volunteers abroad charge as much as $5,000 per person," he said. "Just imagine where that money would go."
Today, The Omprakash Foundation (www.omprakash.org) links for-free volunteer teachers with more than 100 grassroots educational projects in 26 countries including India, Vietnam, Peru, Nigeria and Ghana. One project is run by the M Venkatarangaiya Foundation (www.mvfindia.in), an eight-year-old organisation started in Andhra Pradesh that helps children in more than 10 Indian states. It fights child labour, offering the children residential 'bridge camps' where they receive free education until they are ready to enter government schools.
The Future Leaders and Women's Development programmes run by Health Inc in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] recently received $17,230 from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, through the Foundation.
Also in Ladakh, the Springdales School received last year $700 to build a library to store the books it received, as part of the Foundation's book distribution project.
William, an alumni of Bowdoin College, Maine, who will study international education at Oxford, said he does not take any money to run the website or for anything else connected with his volunteer work.
"If you write a check, we transfer 100 percent of that money to Peru. Or India," he said. "We offer an ever-expanding database of grassroots educational projects with which we have established personal relationships. Our content is user-generated: As people young and old travel the world to volunteer. They build relationships with non-government agencies, schools and charity foundations. We invite them to bring these educational projects into the Omprakash network."
The model the New Canaan, Connecticut-based Foundation uses is largely the result of the encounters William had in India.
"We learned soon after starting this foundation that volunteers did not have to go through organisations that charge high fees for admission into structured, pre-arranged 'volunteer trips'," he said. "We worked hard to connect with organisations where we could volunteer directly. During our subsequent trips, we were becoming more aware of another problem: Many educational organisations in India were eager to receive volunteers and other resources, but did not know how to seek that help."
The third problem the foundation faced stemmed from the discovery that many potential volunteers and donors did not know the specific needs of the educational projects. Thus, humanitarian efforts were often doomed to be thoroughly de-humanised by the bureaucratic mechanics of macro-level development.
The Omprakash Foundation, which apart from connecting volunteers also facilitates donations over $250,000 a year, he said, does not offer any guide service to escort volunteers or donors to any countries. The website says: 'But we offer our advice and encouragement to young Americans looking to broaden their perspectives by entering a foreign community and forging relationships without the filter of an organised travel group. We strongly believe that this effort of ours will be eye-opening and intensely educational for both American volunteers and the foreign communities that they will serve.'
They sell trash to save lives
They sell trash to save lives
Shail Shah is a 23-year-old IT engineer. He works with Adani Wilmar, a leading edible oil company, but there's something else that keeps this young go-getter busy.
In his free time, Shail along with 65 other young people from Ahmedabad [ Images ], come together to raise money for deserving, needy families, distribute food and supplies to slum-dwellers and spend time with orphans and old-aged.
While the social activities of this group are varied, one of the more commendable efforts is Shail's initiative to raise money for dialysis patients. He along with 25-year-old Palakh Jain have been raising money by visiting homes, and picking up and selling old newspaper and other recyclable material for the last four years.
People who hear of them through word of mouth or recent news reports call them up and they arrange for the paper or other trash to be picked up. This is then sold at the recyclers', who give them a slightly higher rate than the normal. And this money is channeled into the fund -- a fund provides patients suffering from kidney failure with dialysis. "It is not a one-time expense," explains Shail. These patients need dialyses on a weekly basis and, costing about Rs 12,000-15,000 per month, it is out of reach for many.
But why have they chosen such an unconventional route to raising money? "Well, when you just ask people for money whatever the cause may be, they are reluctant. They are not sure of whether the funds will be utilised for the right purpose, whether the funds will reach the people who need it. This way they can contribute without actually having to give us their money."
The first patient he reached out to was a lady who suffered renal failure during childbirth. Being from an impoverished background she needed help and approached Shail. He extended his assistance from his own pocket but as he learnt of the many others who were suffering just for lack of money, he decided to mobilise funds through his network of friends.
"Another patient, a rickshaw driver, approached me saying that if I could just help him with one week's dialysis, he would live for a week longer enabling him to earn enough money for the next week's session," says Palakh.
So far they have raised Rs 1.72 lakhs but Shail is looking to the future with caution. "While we do want to help more people, we don't want to risk neglecting our older patients. Since dialysis is a recurrent expense we need to ensure that all our patients are taken care of."
The duo has tied up with the Gujarat Kidney Foundation and a panel of six nephrologists. It is from here that deserving patients are identified and assisted. They also collaborate with the Thackershy Trust, where dialysis is administered at a nominal rate. Candidates are screened to make sure that they are truly in need of assistance. The nephrologists charge a marginal amount, which is then covered by the fund.
Apart from this they are also involved in other social activities. They visit old-age homes every fortnight, a school for mentally challenged children every week where they interact with the children and organise dance parties, distribute khichdi and blankets to slum dwellers. A friend's parents have donated two vehicles to the cause, which are used to transport volunteers and supplies every week.
It all began with a drive home from a party. It was winter and this group of youngsters saw people shivering in the cold. This sight prompted them to rustle up some funds to buy them blankets. Since then the group has grown, as has their scope of activity.
And what does the future hold? "Five years down the line, no Indian should die for lack of funds that is our goal, and we are working towards it," says Shail, brimming with hope and confidence.
Shail Shah is a 23-year-old IT engineer. He works with Adani Wilmar, a leading edible oil company, but there's something else that keeps this young go-getter busy.
In his free time, Shail along with 65 other young people from Ahmedabad [ Images ], come together to raise money for deserving, needy families, distribute food and supplies to slum-dwellers and spend time with orphans and old-aged.
While the social activities of this group are varied, one of the more commendable efforts is Shail's initiative to raise money for dialysis patients. He along with 25-year-old Palakh Jain have been raising money by visiting homes, and picking up and selling old newspaper and other recyclable material for the last four years.
People who hear of them through word of mouth or recent news reports call them up and they arrange for the paper or other trash to be picked up. This is then sold at the recyclers', who give them a slightly higher rate than the normal. And this money is channeled into the fund -- a fund provides patients suffering from kidney failure with dialysis. "It is not a one-time expense," explains Shail. These patients need dialyses on a weekly basis and, costing about Rs 12,000-15,000 per month, it is out of reach for many.
But why have they chosen such an unconventional route to raising money? "Well, when you just ask people for money whatever the cause may be, they are reluctant. They are not sure of whether the funds will be utilised for the right purpose, whether the funds will reach the people who need it. This way they can contribute without actually having to give us their money."
The first patient he reached out to was a lady who suffered renal failure during childbirth. Being from an impoverished background she needed help and approached Shail. He extended his assistance from his own pocket but as he learnt of the many others who were suffering just for lack of money, he decided to mobilise funds through his network of friends.
"Another patient, a rickshaw driver, approached me saying that if I could just help him with one week's dialysis, he would live for a week longer enabling him to earn enough money for the next week's session," says Palakh.
So far they have raised Rs 1.72 lakhs but Shail is looking to the future with caution. "While we do want to help more people, we don't want to risk neglecting our older patients. Since dialysis is a recurrent expense we need to ensure that all our patients are taken care of."
The duo has tied up with the Gujarat Kidney Foundation and a panel of six nephrologists. It is from here that deserving patients are identified and assisted. They also collaborate with the Thackershy Trust, where dialysis is administered at a nominal rate. Candidates are screened to make sure that they are truly in need of assistance. The nephrologists charge a marginal amount, which is then covered by the fund.
Apart from this they are also involved in other social activities. They visit old-age homes every fortnight, a school for mentally challenged children every week where they interact with the children and organise dance parties, distribute khichdi and blankets to slum dwellers. A friend's parents have donated two vehicles to the cause, which are used to transport volunteers and supplies every week.
It all began with a drive home from a party. It was winter and this group of youngsters saw people shivering in the cold. This sight prompted them to rustle up some funds to buy them blankets. Since then the group has grown, as has their scope of activity.
And what does the future hold? "Five years down the line, no Indian should die for lack of funds that is our goal, and we are working towards it," says Shail, brimming with hope and confidence.
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future is a book by Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation. A Whole New Mind posits that the future of global business belongs to the right-brainers.
A historical narrative starts the book outlining four major 'ages':
1. Agricultural Age (farmers)
2. Industrial Age (factory workers)
3. Information Age (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)
The fourth stage is where Pink focuses and how businesses can be successful.
Pink references three prevailing trends pointing towards the future of business and the economy: Abundance (consumers have too many choices, nothing is scarce), Asia (everything that can be outsourced, is) and Automation (computerization, robots, technology, processes). This brings up three crucial questions for the success of any business:
1. Can a computer do it faster?
2. Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
3. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
When these questions are present, creativity becomes the competitive difference that can differentiate commodities. Pink outlines six essential senses:
1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument. Best of the six senses.
3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
6. Meaning - the purpose is the journey, give meaning to life from inside yourself.
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future is a book by Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation. A Whole New Mind posits that the future of global business belongs to the right-brainers.
A historical narrative starts the book outlining four major 'ages':
1. Agricultural Age (farmers)
2. Industrial Age (factory workers)
3. Information Age (knowledge workers)
4. Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)
The fourth stage is where Pink focuses and how businesses can be successful.
Pink references three prevailing trends pointing towards the future of business and the economy: Abundance (consumers have too many choices, nothing is scarce), Asia (everything that can be outsourced, is) and Automation (computerization, robots, technology, processes). This brings up three crucial questions for the success of any business:
1. Can a computer do it faster?
2. Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?
3. Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
When these questions are present, creativity becomes the competitive difference that can differentiate commodities. Pink outlines six essential senses:
1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument. Best of the six senses.
3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
6. Meaning - the purpose is the journey, give meaning to life from inside yourself.
My Inspiration for future plans.......
"G" - The Wiz Kid
At 17, Gurbaksh Singh Chahal was clueless about kissing girls and holding hands, but he was savvy enough to make $300,000 a month with an Internet advertising company he founded in his bedroom at his family's home in San Jose, California, U.S.A.
When he flew to Los Angeles on business, the young Sikh with a turban and a beard looked mature, but he was too young to rent a car to drive to his appointments, so he concealed his age by taking cabs to meet his clients.
When he sought venture capital from investors, he skirted questions about his experience (none!) and tried to avoid revealing that he'd dropped out: not from college, but from high school.
Now all of 26, he sits on top of two astounding achievements: He sold his first company, Click Agent, for $40 million in an all-stock merger in 2000, and his second, Blue Lithium, to Yahoo last year for $300 million.
This week, his autobiography, The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions (Palgrave MacMillan, 236 pages, $24.95) hit bookstores.
He appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Thursday. On December 3, he'll be on Fox TV's "Secret Millionaire" series, in which wealthy participants live undercover among the poor, and then bestow $100,000 of their own money on deserving recipients. He lived in the Tenderloin, and his segment features two San Francisco charities: St. Anthony's and Raphael House.
Gurbaksh has yet another TV show in the works, and a new Internet company that should launch in the coming weeks.
While success like his is often attributed to luck, Gurbaksh's story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice. He wrote the book, he said, to show that it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards - not chance.
"I did not want to write a Donald Trump book - 'Think big, kick ass'," Gurbaksh said in an interview last week in his sleek, white, modern penthouse in the Infinity Tower overlooking the Embarcadero and San Francisco Bay. "It's not easy to make money. It's a struggle, a journey. There's no 'Ten ways to success', no pyramid scheme," he said. "I thought if I could write about my life and my journey and people could connect it with their own life, their own path, they could realize, 'If he can do it, so can I.'"
Gurbaksh, who has soap-opera-star good looks, is one of four children in a family that immigrated from Punjab, India, in 1986 to escape political instability arising from political upheaval in Punjab, the Sikh homeland.
In San Jose, his father worked as a postal employee and his mother was a nurse. Gurbaksh had an older brother, two older sisters and a grandmother who came along. They lived in East San Jose, one of the city's lower-income neighborhoods.
In India, his father had graduated college with an engineering degree and worked at the police academy, while his mother had run the nursing program at a city hospital.
Here, they worked double shifts, shopped at the Dollar Store and McFrugal's and clipped coupons. But they encouraged their children to go to college to become doctors or engineers.
But Gurbaksh, who was nicknamed "G" for Gurbakshi-Ji ("Ji" is a term of endearment) took an independent path. He was influenced by his father's pluck, his grandmother's optimistic spirit and an innate stubborn streak.
He was teased as a child by neighborhood kids about his Sikh religion, questioned by a schoolteacher about his colorful clothing, and was once forced at knifepoint on a schoolyard basketball court to take his turban off.
"I can't. It's part of my religion," Chahal told them.
"You don't listen too good, do you?" (the boy) said, taking a knife out of his pocket. "Take that s- off right now!"
"I wanted to tell them, just as I'd wanted to tell everyone who had ever taunted me, that I was proud of my family, proud of my heritage and proud to be a Sikh - but I was just a kid, and I didn't know where to begin," he says. "Instead, I began to long for another kind of existence, where I was in charge."
His dream became a reality not long afterward.
Gurbaksh's father had started a side job, day trading on the computer, and was soon making more money than at his day job. Gurbaksh, the youngest son, helped him research stocks, and together they watched business reports on TV and read the business pages every morning before work and school.
Gurbaksh came across Double Click, an Internet advertising business. They didn't invest, but it planted a seed in his mind.
When the stock market crashed in 1997 and his father lost nearly everything, Gurbaksh decided he would try to help his family recover - and created his own company, Click Agent. It was a performance-based advertising company.
Software could track when someone viewing a Web page clicked on an ad; an advertiser was charged each time that happened. The company that delivered the most clicks most consistently, he writes in his book, was going to get the most business.
Gurbaksh doesn't write code, but he knew what he wanted the program to do, and hired a programmer who flew to San Jose from London to meet with him. He promised to pay the man $10,000 a month, even though he didn't have any startup cash. After the meeting, he went home and began cold-calling companies to find clients to place orders.
"Two days into it, I struck gold," Gurbaksh says. "I found myself on the phone with a gentleman at the Left Field Advertising Agency in San Francisco. Left Field had a client, Infoseek, a search engine like Google, that was looking to increase traffic to its website.
'If you put up a $30,000 order, I can deliver traffic at a dollar a click,' I told the agency. In plain English, I was telling him that I could deliver at least 30,000 clicks.
'We'll get back to you,' I was told. The following morning, they contacted me with an insertion order. Suddenly I was in business. That's how fast things moved."
Gurbaksh hadn't told his parents, but soon he had to. He was making serious money. He couldn't open a bank account on his own because he was too young, and had enlisted his older brother, Taj, to open one and join him in the business venture.
Nirmal, the family's eldest daughter, recalled the night that Gurbaksh told his father.
Dad freaks out
"He brought the bank statement and showed my father he was making money," she said by phone from Utah, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. "My dad's reaction was that he literally screamed. My mom came rushing from the kitchen, her hands still wet. My dad said, 'G is going to jail! He did something illegal!' They'd been working twenty years, double shifts, and had not had that kind of savings."
Once the family understood that it was a legitimate business, tempers calmed.
"Initially, it was tough to believe," his father, Avtar Singh, said. "But because Gurbaksh believed in himself, I believed in him. I'm the proudest father in the world."
Gurbaksh persuaded his father to let him drop out of high school. He opened an office in Santa Clara and hired staff, including two of his siblings. He sold the company to a competitor, Value Click, and a few years later started Blue Lithium.
At Value Click, he met Troy Baloca, who worked as director of sales. Baloca, now chief executive at eMediaVC Inc., says Gurbaksh has been an inspiration to him since the day they met. Their brainstorming sessions often run past 2 a.m.
"Ever since I've known him, he's been a mentor for me - the way he carries himself, the way he talks to people," Baloca said. "It's not about age, because we'd go into board meetings together and he had a presence. I would call him a genius. He's a thinker. The word 'motivated' is not the word. The best word to describe him is 'determined'. Everything he does has rubbed off tenfold, not just on me but on others around him, too."
With his success, Gurbaksh paid off the mortgage on the new home his parents had moved into in a better neighborhood. He bought cars for his brothers and sisters and took the family on vacations. He also went through a car phase, buying a Lamborghini, a Mercedes, a Ferrari, another Lamborghini and finally a small white Bentley, which he drives today.
He also started dating, something he'd never learned to do in high school. Money, he has found, has brought him a more ornamented life - bigger homes, designer clothes, better toys - but also complexity. He recently vacationed in St. Tropez, where he found that the good life wasn't so good.
Down to earth
"Too superficial - in restaurants, it was all about who could have the bigger tab," said Gurbaksh, a down-to-earth type who flies economy class and whose parents fed the kids Little Caesar's pizza on Monday nights because it was only $5 per pie. "Waiters at Nikki Beach would clap for you, if you bought Champagne at 3,100 euros a bottle. I could do that, but it would put me through mental shock."
He's also finding it hard to form friendships and find girlfriends because it's difficult to know whether people like him for himself - or his money.
"He still gets nervous on the first date," said Baloca, who enlisted Gurbaksh to be best man at his wedding five years ago. "He'll call and say, 'I met this girl,' and we'll start talking. I'll ask, 'Where are you going to take her?' It's nice to know I can help him, too."
Gurbaksh likes to go to Las Vegas because there nobody knows him as the millionaire wunderkind. He's just a guy from the Bay Area.
"When it comes to making friends, what it comes down to is finding people who don't need anything from me," Gurbaksh said. "That's the test."
He's working on a new company called gWallet that he says will help people shop for bargains on the Internet, and hopes to launch it in the next few weeks. In the meantime, he believes that his book can serve as a self-help primer for just about anyone.
Not bad for a guy who spent his teen years skipping proms and movies in favor of toiling in front of a computer, munching on Twinkies.
"I've had an incredible eleven years," Gurbaksh said. "I thought, if I had an opportunity to share it and if I could inspire people, why not?"
At 17, Gurbaksh Singh Chahal was clueless about kissing girls and holding hands, but he was savvy enough to make $300,000 a month with an Internet advertising company he founded in his bedroom at his family's home in San Jose, California, U.S.A.
When he flew to Los Angeles on business, the young Sikh with a turban and a beard looked mature, but he was too young to rent a car to drive to his appointments, so he concealed his age by taking cabs to meet his clients.
When he sought venture capital from investors, he skirted questions about his experience (none!) and tried to avoid revealing that he'd dropped out: not from college, but from high school.
Now all of 26, he sits on top of two astounding achievements: He sold his first company, Click Agent, for $40 million in an all-stock merger in 2000, and his second, Blue Lithium, to Yahoo last year for $300 million.
This week, his autobiography, The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions (Palgrave MacMillan, 236 pages, $24.95) hit bookstores.
He appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Thursday. On December 3, he'll be on Fox TV's "Secret Millionaire" series, in which wealthy participants live undercover among the poor, and then bestow $100,000 of their own money on deserving recipients. He lived in the Tenderloin, and his segment features two San Francisco charities: St. Anthony's and Raphael House.
Gurbaksh has yet another TV show in the works, and a new Internet company that should launch in the coming weeks.
While success like his is often attributed to luck, Gurbaksh's story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice. He wrote the book, he said, to show that it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards - not chance.
"I did not want to write a Donald Trump book - 'Think big, kick ass'," Gurbaksh said in an interview last week in his sleek, white, modern penthouse in the Infinity Tower overlooking the Embarcadero and San Francisco Bay. "It's not easy to make money. It's a struggle, a journey. There's no 'Ten ways to success', no pyramid scheme," he said. "I thought if I could write about my life and my journey and people could connect it with their own life, their own path, they could realize, 'If he can do it, so can I.'"
Gurbaksh, who has soap-opera-star good looks, is one of four children in a family that immigrated from Punjab, India, in 1986 to escape political instability arising from political upheaval in Punjab, the Sikh homeland.
In San Jose, his father worked as a postal employee and his mother was a nurse. Gurbaksh had an older brother, two older sisters and a grandmother who came along. They lived in East San Jose, one of the city's lower-income neighborhoods.
In India, his father had graduated college with an engineering degree and worked at the police academy, while his mother had run the nursing program at a city hospital.
Here, they worked double shifts, shopped at the Dollar Store and McFrugal's and clipped coupons. But they encouraged their children to go to college to become doctors or engineers.
But Gurbaksh, who was nicknamed "G" for Gurbakshi-Ji ("Ji" is a term of endearment) took an independent path. He was influenced by his father's pluck, his grandmother's optimistic spirit and an innate stubborn streak.
He was teased as a child by neighborhood kids about his Sikh religion, questioned by a schoolteacher about his colorful clothing, and was once forced at knifepoint on a schoolyard basketball court to take his turban off.
"I can't. It's part of my religion," Chahal told them.
"You don't listen too good, do you?" (the boy) said, taking a knife out of his pocket. "Take that s- off right now!"
"I wanted to tell them, just as I'd wanted to tell everyone who had ever taunted me, that I was proud of my family, proud of my heritage and proud to be a Sikh - but I was just a kid, and I didn't know where to begin," he says. "Instead, I began to long for another kind of existence, where I was in charge."
His dream became a reality not long afterward.
Gurbaksh's father had started a side job, day trading on the computer, and was soon making more money than at his day job. Gurbaksh, the youngest son, helped him research stocks, and together they watched business reports on TV and read the business pages every morning before work and school.
Gurbaksh came across Double Click, an Internet advertising business. They didn't invest, but it planted a seed in his mind.
When the stock market crashed in 1997 and his father lost nearly everything, Gurbaksh decided he would try to help his family recover - and created his own company, Click Agent. It was a performance-based advertising company.
Software could track when someone viewing a Web page clicked on an ad; an advertiser was charged each time that happened. The company that delivered the most clicks most consistently, he writes in his book, was going to get the most business.
Gurbaksh doesn't write code, but he knew what he wanted the program to do, and hired a programmer who flew to San Jose from London to meet with him. He promised to pay the man $10,000 a month, even though he didn't have any startup cash. After the meeting, he went home and began cold-calling companies to find clients to place orders.
"Two days into it, I struck gold," Gurbaksh says. "I found myself on the phone with a gentleman at the Left Field Advertising Agency in San Francisco. Left Field had a client, Infoseek, a search engine like Google, that was looking to increase traffic to its website.
'If you put up a $30,000 order, I can deliver traffic at a dollar a click,' I told the agency. In plain English, I was telling him that I could deliver at least 30,000 clicks.
'We'll get back to you,' I was told. The following morning, they contacted me with an insertion order. Suddenly I was in business. That's how fast things moved."
Gurbaksh hadn't told his parents, but soon he had to. He was making serious money. He couldn't open a bank account on his own because he was too young, and had enlisted his older brother, Taj, to open one and join him in the business venture.
Nirmal, the family's eldest daughter, recalled the night that Gurbaksh told his father.
Dad freaks out
"He brought the bank statement and showed my father he was making money," she said by phone from Utah, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. "My dad's reaction was that he literally screamed. My mom came rushing from the kitchen, her hands still wet. My dad said, 'G is going to jail! He did something illegal!' They'd been working twenty years, double shifts, and had not had that kind of savings."
Once the family understood that it was a legitimate business, tempers calmed.
"Initially, it was tough to believe," his father, Avtar Singh, said. "But because Gurbaksh believed in himself, I believed in him. I'm the proudest father in the world."
Gurbaksh persuaded his father to let him drop out of high school. He opened an office in Santa Clara and hired staff, including two of his siblings. He sold the company to a competitor, Value Click, and a few years later started Blue Lithium.
At Value Click, he met Troy Baloca, who worked as director of sales. Baloca, now chief executive at eMediaVC Inc., says Gurbaksh has been an inspiration to him since the day they met. Their brainstorming sessions often run past 2 a.m.
"Ever since I've known him, he's been a mentor for me - the way he carries himself, the way he talks to people," Baloca said. "It's not about age, because we'd go into board meetings together and he had a presence. I would call him a genius. He's a thinker. The word 'motivated' is not the word. The best word to describe him is 'determined'. Everything he does has rubbed off tenfold, not just on me but on others around him, too."
With his success, Gurbaksh paid off the mortgage on the new home his parents had moved into in a better neighborhood. He bought cars for his brothers and sisters and took the family on vacations. He also went through a car phase, buying a Lamborghini, a Mercedes, a Ferrari, another Lamborghini and finally a small white Bentley, which he drives today.
He also started dating, something he'd never learned to do in high school. Money, he has found, has brought him a more ornamented life - bigger homes, designer clothes, better toys - but also complexity. He recently vacationed in St. Tropez, where he found that the good life wasn't so good.
Down to earth
"Too superficial - in restaurants, it was all about who could have the bigger tab," said Gurbaksh, a down-to-earth type who flies economy class and whose parents fed the kids Little Caesar's pizza on Monday nights because it was only $5 per pie. "Waiters at Nikki Beach would clap for you, if you bought Champagne at 3,100 euros a bottle. I could do that, but it would put me through mental shock."
He's also finding it hard to form friendships and find girlfriends because it's difficult to know whether people like him for himself - or his money.
"He still gets nervous on the first date," said Baloca, who enlisted Gurbaksh to be best man at his wedding five years ago. "He'll call and say, 'I met this girl,' and we'll start talking. I'll ask, 'Where are you going to take her?' It's nice to know I can help him, too."
Gurbaksh likes to go to Las Vegas because there nobody knows him as the millionaire wunderkind. He's just a guy from the Bay Area.
"When it comes to making friends, what it comes down to is finding people who don't need anything from me," Gurbaksh said. "That's the test."
He's working on a new company called gWallet that he says will help people shop for bargains on the Internet, and hopes to launch it in the next few weeks. In the meantime, he believes that his book can serve as a self-help primer for just about anyone.
Not bad for a guy who spent his teen years skipping proms and movies in favor of toiling in front of a computer, munching on Twinkies.
"I've had an incredible eleven years," Gurbaksh said. "I thought, if I had an opportunity to share it and if I could inspire people, why not?"
Monday, November 9, 2009
Bulk Deal vs Block Deal
In 2008, when the stock markets were bearish, many foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and other big investors chose to keep away from the 'block deals' in stocks plunging the trading volumes through such deals by 30 per cent.
However, things changed for good and when the Sensex raised by over 47 per cent since March 2009 the long term institutional investors and minority shareholders have started showing interest to raise funds through block deals. Between January 2009 and February 2009, there were six block deals worth Rs 232 crore. Recently, several big companies like Dish TV, UltraTech Cement [ Get Quote ], Ambuja Cements and Tata Steel [ Get Quote ] like have carried out block deals to name a few.
But what are these block deals? How does it happen? And why is it being talked about now? How is it different from bulk deal? Let us see.
What is block deal?
According to Securities and Exchange Board of India a block deal is a single transaction of a minimum quantity of five lakh shares or a minimum value of Rs 5 crore and is done between two parties through a separate window of the stock exchange that is open for only 35 minutes in the beginning of the trading hours.
SEBI has also made it mandatory for the stock brokers to disclose on a daily basis the block deals made through DUS or Data Upload Software.
Difference between block deal and bulk deal
Unlike a block deal that happens through a separate window that is open for only 35 minutes in the beginning of the trading hours at the stock exchange, bulk deals happen all through the trading day. Another major difference is that a bulk deal is said to have happened if under a single client code and in a single or multiple transactions more than 0.5 per cent of a company's number of equity shares is traded.
Also, bulk deals are market driven while two parties are required for a block deal to take place. Bulk deals carried out for the day should be revealed by a broker on the same day to the stock exchange using the DUS.
Who can go for these deals?
Generally, only the institutional players including the foreign institutional investors are the major participants in this type of deals. This also includes mutual funds, the various financial institutions, and companies carrying out insurance business, banks, and venture capitalists. Sometimes, many promoters use this window to arrange the issues that are related to cross holdings.
Statutory requirements that must be followed for block deals
SEBI has rules in place certain rules for carrying out block deals. It is mandatory that block deals should happen only through a separate window and for a period of 35 minutes only in the beginning of the trading hours. Also SEBI rules state that block deal orders should be placed for a price not exceeding +1 per cent to -1 per cent of the previous day's closing or the current market price. Delivery must be made for every trade executed and cannot be squared off or reversed. All details like the name of the scrip, the client's name, number of shares and traded price should be disclosed to the public through the DUS every day after market hours.
Interpretation of such deals
Investors often rely upon the block and bulk deals and their movements for trading cues. However, this might not be completely true. A block or bulk deal in a particular scrip doesn't necessarily mean that the stock price of the specific stock will increase as there are buyers and sellers involved in every deal. Understanding the profiles of the institutions involved in the deal and their strategies is required. However in case of bulk deals happening on a continuous basis in a counter or share with high volumes and high pending shares it could be a sign of appreciation in price in the future. Yet this could also happen in an operator driven counters.
So the block or bulk deals can be considered only as a first level of investigation and an investor before investing in a share should look for more details like specific information about the company like its fundamentals, its performance and ranking in its industry, and its future plans and prospects.
However, things changed for good and when the Sensex raised by over 47 per cent since March 2009 the long term institutional investors and minority shareholders have started showing interest to raise funds through block deals. Between January 2009 and February 2009, there were six block deals worth Rs 232 crore. Recently, several big companies like Dish TV, UltraTech Cement [ Get Quote ], Ambuja Cements and Tata Steel [ Get Quote ] like have carried out block deals to name a few.
But what are these block deals? How does it happen? And why is it being talked about now? How is it different from bulk deal? Let us see.
What is block deal?
According to Securities and Exchange Board of India a block deal is a single transaction of a minimum quantity of five lakh shares or a minimum value of Rs 5 crore and is done between two parties through a separate window of the stock exchange that is open for only 35 minutes in the beginning of the trading hours.
SEBI has also made it mandatory for the stock brokers to disclose on a daily basis the block deals made through DUS or Data Upload Software.
Difference between block deal and bulk deal
Unlike a block deal that happens through a separate window that is open for only 35 minutes in the beginning of the trading hours at the stock exchange, bulk deals happen all through the trading day. Another major difference is that a bulk deal is said to have happened if under a single client code and in a single or multiple transactions more than 0.5 per cent of a company's number of equity shares is traded.
Also, bulk deals are market driven while two parties are required for a block deal to take place. Bulk deals carried out for the day should be revealed by a broker on the same day to the stock exchange using the DUS.
Who can go for these deals?
Generally, only the institutional players including the foreign institutional investors are the major participants in this type of deals. This also includes mutual funds, the various financial institutions, and companies carrying out insurance business, banks, and venture capitalists. Sometimes, many promoters use this window to arrange the issues that are related to cross holdings.
Statutory requirements that must be followed for block deals
SEBI has rules in place certain rules for carrying out block deals. It is mandatory that block deals should happen only through a separate window and for a period of 35 minutes only in the beginning of the trading hours. Also SEBI rules state that block deal orders should be placed for a price not exceeding +1 per cent to -1 per cent of the previous day's closing or the current market price. Delivery must be made for every trade executed and cannot be squared off or reversed. All details like the name of the scrip, the client's name, number of shares and traded price should be disclosed to the public through the DUS every day after market hours.
Interpretation of such deals
Investors often rely upon the block and bulk deals and their movements for trading cues. However, this might not be completely true. A block or bulk deal in a particular scrip doesn't necessarily mean that the stock price of the specific stock will increase as there are buyers and sellers involved in every deal. Understanding the profiles of the institutions involved in the deal and their strategies is required. However in case of bulk deals happening on a continuous basis in a counter or share with high volumes and high pending shares it could be a sign of appreciation in price in the future. Yet this could also happen in an operator driven counters.
So the block or bulk deals can be considered only as a first level of investigation and an investor before investing in a share should look for more details like specific information about the company like its fundamentals, its performance and ranking in its industry, and its future plans and prospects.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
How To Succeed At Work & In Career
How To Succeed At Work & In Career
1. Don't talk negatively about people behind their backs. If you gossip, people won't confide in you. Mind your own business.
2. Try to work for someone who'll challenge your powers. You'll learn more in a year than 4 years of college.
3. Successful bosses have good communication skills. They learn from people, including their employees.
4. Work in such a way that makes your boss look good. It's not flattery.
5. On downsizing, the first to go are those with few friends. Bosses prefer competent people whom they respect.
6. Dress for the job you want, not the one you have. Let your dress reflect professionalism.
7. Workout to get in good physical shape. Unless exceptionally skilled, the unhealthy are at a comparative disadvantage.
8. Personal integrity is crucial. Tell nothing but the truth. Bosses can forgive mistakes but if you lie, you're gone.
9. Be on time. Try to arrive few minutes early. It saves you from stress. You'll be much relaxed & work better
10. Strive your best to keep a deadline. If you cannot meet it, then apologize & ask for an extension
11. Don't take things personally. If some people are unhappy with you, it's their problem. But always strive to give your best.
12. If you must correct someone, don't get personal about it. Do it never in front of others.
13. Spend some time alone everyday. What's the mission of my life? What do I want to be? And how to go about it.
14. As you move along Plan A of your career, maintain a Plan B as well — an alternative course to rely
15. Always remember that the secret of success is passion. Always think big. Spread love & joy. You'll have blissful years ahead
1. Don't talk negatively about people behind their backs. If you gossip, people won't confide in you. Mind your own business.
2. Try to work for someone who'll challenge your powers. You'll learn more in a year than 4 years of college.
3. Successful bosses have good communication skills. They learn from people, including their employees.
4. Work in such a way that makes your boss look good. It's not flattery.
5. On downsizing, the first to go are those with few friends. Bosses prefer competent people whom they respect.
6. Dress for the job you want, not the one you have. Let your dress reflect professionalism.
7. Workout to get in good physical shape. Unless exceptionally skilled, the unhealthy are at a comparative disadvantage.
8. Personal integrity is crucial. Tell nothing but the truth. Bosses can forgive mistakes but if you lie, you're gone.
9. Be on time. Try to arrive few minutes early. It saves you from stress. You'll be much relaxed & work better
10. Strive your best to keep a deadline. If you cannot meet it, then apologize & ask for an extension
11. Don't take things personally. If some people are unhappy with you, it's their problem. But always strive to give your best.
12. If you must correct someone, don't get personal about it. Do it never in front of others.
13. Spend some time alone everyday. What's the mission of my life? What do I want to be? And how to go about it.
14. As you move along Plan A of your career, maintain a Plan B as well — an alternative course to rely
15. Always remember that the secret of success is passion. Always think big. Spread love & joy. You'll have blissful years ahead
Friday, November 6, 2009
10 things all JAVA developers should know
1. Remember the basic of JAVA language and OOP paradigm.
Most experience developers seem to forget the theory behind the language. I am not saying that they are not good at their job but can they explain to junior developers why they have used interfaces instead of abstract classes or why implement a pattern over another one? As a programmer, you become very arrogant as you believe that you write the best code but in the real world, people work in teams with different skill set and experiences. It is important that you can backup your actions/ codes. A very simple question such as; when should I use a String object instead of a StringBuilder/ StringBuffer? You might take this question lightly but can you actually tell someone else the difference?
2. Know your technology stack
All developers have to know their technology stack. What does it mean? JAVA is not like other languages; JAVA has subsets such J2ME and superset such as Java EE. We have our own area of expertise but it is important to know the differences between the various sets of JAVA. Some basic questions such as the differences between SWING, Applet, Servlets, EJBs and JAVAFX will boost your confidence. Most developers do not know how to tweak the JVM and the differences between the JRE and the SDK environment. Do you know why you need the SDK to be installed to run Tomcat but you only need the JRE to run an application?
3. Experiment with various Java EE framework
I am not asking you to be an expert in every single Java EE framework but it will make the difference if you are familiar with Spring and EJB. That should actually be the de facto framework that should be on every developers CV. Developers should know the difference between Java EE 5 (soon 6) and Spring. Hibernate is also brilliant and it's used for data access but all developers should have moved to JPA by now. Hibernate also comply with JPA therefore there is no more excuses.
4. Know a scripting language
JAVA can be heavyweight for some simple tasks which can be implemented using a simple dynamic language such as Python, Perl(?) and others. I would also recommend to developers to learn shell scripting on their target OS.
5. Know how to develop web services
The network is the computer, therefore it is important to know the different web services framework available. Data are integrated through web services and opening your services to the "cloud". SWING developers will probably not develop web services but I am sure that they will be connecting to data through web services clients. Understanding the difference between the standardised SOAP and non-standardised ReST will help you choose which is best to implement your services.
6. Know how and when to multithread your application
I have to put that in there. Developers should know when and why to multithread an application, thread inter-communication and monitoring. All developers, junior or not, should know how to write a multi-threaded application.
7. Database development using JDBC and JPA
This should be a development law. All developers should know how to write SQL queries and how to create databases. All enterprise applications store data in some sort of relational database systems and it is therefore imperative that this knowledge should be of second nature. Java EE 5 introduced JPA (JDO was there before) but it is not applicable to all situation. Hence, knowing the difference and when to implement one instead of the other is important.
8. Know a client side scripting language and what is AJAX
The network is the computer and Internet is the deployment platform. Java EE and its various framework are server side executiong which can put extra "load" on the server. If you are looking to move a cloud based system where the providers charges you per resources used, it might be wise to move some of the execution to the client side. AJAX has been buzzing the scene for the last 3 years and more. This is not a technology but a new way of doing something that already existed. There are numerous JAVA AJAX framework such as GWT and DWR which makes it easy to develop AJAX based application which are compiled to JavaScript. Developers should also know what is the AJAX theories.
9. Know your competitors and do not take part on "what is the best IDE" discussion
JAVA is not the only language that can do what it does. I think that JAVA is more mature and complete as opposed to other languages. Knowing the difference between JAVA and .NET or JAVA and Ruby is a good asset to have. You also need to know when and why to use one instead of the other. Please please please, do not get into "my IDE is better than x because..." discussion as it is good for the JAVA community to have multiple IDEs and framework available to use. Every tools have their place as for example JDeveloper is better than x if you are going to solely develop on an Oracle stack and etc...
10. Know ANT (MAVEN?), TOMCAT and any other mainstrean application server
ANT is the de facto build script for JAVA and its IDE-based development. Maven is becoming popular and soon can be as popular as ANT (not sure of its popularity in the financial sector). TOMCAT should be immortalised as the based servlet container that all developers should be familiar with.
There are alot more to add but this is just some of the basics that I think all developers should have in their repertoire. Feel free to add to this list in the comments box. If I could had another one to this, would be; all developers not just JAVA, should know how to search the web and Google is your best friends.
Most experience developers seem to forget the theory behind the language. I am not saying that they are not good at their job but can they explain to junior developers why they have used interfaces instead of abstract classes or why implement a pattern over another one? As a programmer, you become very arrogant as you believe that you write the best code but in the real world, people work in teams with different skill set and experiences. It is important that you can backup your actions/ codes. A very simple question such as; when should I use a String object instead of a StringBuilder/ StringBuffer? You might take this question lightly but can you actually tell someone else the difference?
2. Know your technology stack
All developers have to know their technology stack. What does it mean? JAVA is not like other languages; JAVA has subsets such J2ME and superset such as Java EE. We have our own area of expertise but it is important to know the differences between the various sets of JAVA. Some basic questions such as the differences between SWING, Applet, Servlets, EJBs and JAVAFX will boost your confidence. Most developers do not know how to tweak the JVM and the differences between the JRE and the SDK environment. Do you know why you need the SDK to be installed to run Tomcat but you only need the JRE to run an application?
3. Experiment with various Java EE framework
I am not asking you to be an expert in every single Java EE framework but it will make the difference if you are familiar with Spring and EJB. That should actually be the de facto framework that should be on every developers CV. Developers should know the difference between Java EE 5 (soon 6) and Spring. Hibernate is also brilliant and it's used for data access but all developers should have moved to JPA by now. Hibernate also comply with JPA therefore there is no more excuses.
4. Know a scripting language
JAVA can be heavyweight for some simple tasks which can be implemented using a simple dynamic language such as Python, Perl(?) and others. I would also recommend to developers to learn shell scripting on their target OS.
5. Know how to develop web services
The network is the computer, therefore it is important to know the different web services framework available. Data are integrated through web services and opening your services to the "cloud". SWING developers will probably not develop web services but I am sure that they will be connecting to data through web services clients. Understanding the difference between the standardised SOAP and non-standardised ReST will help you choose which is best to implement your services.
6. Know how and when to multithread your application
I have to put that in there. Developers should know when and why to multithread an application, thread inter-communication and monitoring. All developers, junior or not, should know how to write a multi-threaded application.
7. Database development using JDBC and JPA
This should be a development law. All developers should know how to write SQL queries and how to create databases. All enterprise applications store data in some sort of relational database systems and it is therefore imperative that this knowledge should be of second nature. Java EE 5 introduced JPA (JDO was there before) but it is not applicable to all situation. Hence, knowing the difference and when to implement one instead of the other is important.
8. Know a client side scripting language and what is AJAX
The network is the computer and Internet is the deployment platform. Java EE and its various framework are server side executiong which can put extra "load" on the server. If you are looking to move a cloud based system where the providers charges you per resources used, it might be wise to move some of the execution to the client side. AJAX has been buzzing the scene for the last 3 years and more. This is not a technology but a new way of doing something that already existed. There are numerous JAVA AJAX framework such as GWT and DWR which makes it easy to develop AJAX based application which are compiled to JavaScript. Developers should also know what is the AJAX theories.
9. Know your competitors and do not take part on "what is the best IDE" discussion
JAVA is not the only language that can do what it does. I think that JAVA is more mature and complete as opposed to other languages. Knowing the difference between JAVA and .NET or JAVA and Ruby is a good asset to have. You also need to know when and why to use one instead of the other. Please please please, do not get into "my IDE is better than x because..." discussion as it is good for the JAVA community to have multiple IDEs and framework available to use. Every tools have their place as for example JDeveloper is better than x if you are going to solely develop on an Oracle stack and etc...
10. Know ANT (MAVEN?), TOMCAT and any other mainstrean application server
ANT is the de facto build script for JAVA and its IDE-based development. Maven is becoming popular and soon can be as popular as ANT (not sure of its popularity in the financial sector). TOMCAT should be immortalised as the based servlet container that all developers should be familiar with.
There are alot more to add but this is just some of the basics that I think all developers should have in their repertoire. Feel free to add to this list in the comments box. If I could had another one to this, would be; all developers not just JAVA, should know how to search the web and Google is your best friends.
Top 10 careers in finance
Finance -- the sector most battered by the global meltdown -- is making a comeback. News streaming in from top B-school campuses such as the IIMs talks of finance positions once again claiming their place in the sun. Financial heavyweights are flexing their muscles once again on Day Zero. Names currently doing the rounds are Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, UBS, HSBC, RBS, Barclays, Bank of America -- Merrill Lynch, Nomura and many more.
Although a lot of us may want to take advantage of this, a lot of questions may also arise in our mind.
What are the roles these financial companies offer? What is the meaning of all the perplexing finance positions in these companies? What does one do exactly? What is the skill set required? How much does one get paid?
Finance as a career option is a very wide term. In a survey by an education portal, it was pointed out that over 75 per cent students took finance purely because they felt that it paid the most. That shows one thing: mostly students and job-seekers find who opt for this specialisation do not know what they are getting into.
This is an attempt to simplify some of the financial career options students should look at when contemplating a career in finance.
1. Private equity: The role of private equity is to raise funds from large investors and invest the money directly into businesses. The usual manner is to raise money from overseas investors and then find businesses in the growth stage. Most private equity funds 'exit' the investment after a period of time by selling their holding in the business to some other investors or doing an initial public offering of the shares of the business.
Investment banking comprises two major businesses. One is the advisory/ corporate finance role which entails mergers and acquisitions. This would entail understanding valuations, finding targets, negotiation and compliance with legal regulations. The second role is what is more popularly called equity capital markets role. This entails helping corporates raise funds from investors or the public. So it may entail working on IPOs or Institutional Offerings.
3. Fund Management: As a fund manager, one is an important decision-maker typically at a mutual fund. The fund manager has a good overall understanding of the macro factors which affect the markets as well as the micro factors about which company to invest in. He invests money in stock market, debt market, directly into companies, etc depending upon his fund mandate.
4. Equity Research & Sales: The role of equity research is to find out the correct value of the stock which is trading on the stock exchange doing various types of research namely fundamental and technical analysis. There are two types of ERs though. One is the sell-side research which belongs to a brokerage, the aim is to do research and sell investment ideas to investors so as to earn commission on trading by the investor. The second is buy-side research, which is a part of usually a buy side fund like a mutual fund. They analyse the research results of various brokerages in addition to their own research on investment ideas for the fund manager.
This role entails arranging for long-term finance for infrastructure and industrial projects which will take a long time to pay back. The first step is to understand the project, conduct a feasibility study, risk assessment and a detailed financial model. This is done with the purpose to rope in equity partners (known as sponsors) and lenders. Generally the lending part is done by multiple banks under leadership of the syndicate bank.
6. Financial Risk Management: Financial risk management is the practice of creating economic value in a firm by using financial instruments to manage exposure to risk, particularly credit risk and market risk. Similar to general risk management, financial risk management requires identifying its sources, measuring it, and plans to address them. Financial risk management can be qualitative and quantitative. As a specialisation of risk management, financial risk management focuses on when and how to hedge using financial instruments to manage costly exposures to risk. In the banking sector worldwide, the Basel Accords are generally adopted by internationally active banks for tracking, reporting and exposing operational, credit and market risks.
This role entails the entire plethora of banking services required by corporates. Corporate can be divided into largely two sections Large Corporates and MSME which is Medium and Small enterprises. A corporate banker would thus have companies as his clients and service them. Within corporate banking some of the departments are:
• Credit Borrowing to companies for their expansion and working capital requirements. Would entail doing a credit evaluation on the company and sanctioning the loan
• Treasury Help companies manage various types of risks such as foreign exchange, interest rate fluctuations. Treasuries also take proprietary positions to make profit in the 'forex' and bond markets.
• Cash Management Solutions: As most companies have a large number of customers, distributors or branch offices across the country it becomes a huge challenge to deal in money. Banks offer cash management solutions to help streamline this entire operation for its corporate customers.
8. Wealth Management: Wealth management is an investment advisory discipline that incorporates financial planning, investment portfolio management and a number of aggregated financial services. High net worth individuals, small business owners and families who desire the assistance of a credentialed financial advisory specialist call upon wealth managers to coordinate retail banking, estate planning, legal resources, tax professionals and investment management.
Wealth managers can be independent, certified financial planners. One must already have accumulated a significant amount of wealth for wealth management strategies to be effective. Wealth management can be provided by banks, brokerages, independent financial advisers or multi-licensed portfolio managers whose services are designed to focus on high-net worth customers.
The fallout of the events of 2008 has produced a high level of skepticism and distrust among investors, and they will demand greater transparency from their providers to understand what they own, the value of their investments and associated risks.
Also known as consumer banking, it entails dealing with products / services for individual customers. So the scope encompasses getting business for products such as credit cards, savings accounts, personal loans and auto loans. Operational roles would entail teller, authorising, clearing, remittances and customer service.
10. Corporate Finance: A career in corporate finance means you would work for a company to help it find money to run the business, grow the business, make acquisitions, plan for its financial future and manage any cash on hand. You might work for a large multinational company or a smaller player with high growth prospects.
The job of the financial officer is to create value for a company. As a corporate finance professional one is typicall involved in four main activities to meet its objectives: 1) designing, implementing and monitoring financial policies, 2) planning and executing the financing programme, 3) managing cash resources, and 4) interfacing with the financial community and investors.
Jobs in corporate finance are also relatively stable. Performance in these jobs counts, but your job is not going to depend on whether you're selling enough this week or getting good deals finished this quarter. Rather the key to performing well in corporate finance is to work with a long view of what's going to make your company successful. Many would argue that corporate finance jobs are the most desirable in the entire field of finance. Some of the benefits of working in corporate finance are:
• You generally work in teams which help you work with people
• It's a lot of fun to tackle business problems that really matter
• You'll have many opportunities to travel and meet people and
• The pay in corporate finance is generally quite good
Thus, a budding financial wiz should look at understanding which area interests him/her the most and build skill sets which can help take the leap into financial sector.
Although a lot of us may want to take advantage of this, a lot of questions may also arise in our mind.
What are the roles these financial companies offer? What is the meaning of all the perplexing finance positions in these companies? What does one do exactly? What is the skill set required? How much does one get paid?
Finance as a career option is a very wide term. In a survey by an education portal, it was pointed out that over 75 per cent students took finance purely because they felt that it paid the most. That shows one thing: mostly students and job-seekers find who opt for this specialisation do not know what they are getting into.
This is an attempt to simplify some of the financial career options students should look at when contemplating a career in finance.
1. Private equity: The role of private equity is to raise funds from large investors and invest the money directly into businesses. The usual manner is to raise money from overseas investors and then find businesses in the growth stage. Most private equity funds 'exit' the investment after a period of time by selling their holding in the business to some other investors or doing an initial public offering of the shares of the business.
Investment banking comprises two major businesses. One is the advisory/ corporate finance role which entails mergers and acquisitions. This would entail understanding valuations, finding targets, negotiation and compliance with legal regulations. The second role is what is more popularly called equity capital markets role. This entails helping corporates raise funds from investors or the public. So it may entail working on IPOs or Institutional Offerings.
3. Fund Management: As a fund manager, one is an important decision-maker typically at a mutual fund. The fund manager has a good overall understanding of the macro factors which affect the markets as well as the micro factors about which company to invest in. He invests money in stock market, debt market, directly into companies, etc depending upon his fund mandate.
4. Equity Research & Sales: The role of equity research is to find out the correct value of the stock which is trading on the stock exchange doing various types of research namely fundamental and technical analysis. There are two types of ERs though. One is the sell-side research which belongs to a brokerage, the aim is to do research and sell investment ideas to investors so as to earn commission on trading by the investor. The second is buy-side research, which is a part of usually a buy side fund like a mutual fund. They analyse the research results of various brokerages in addition to their own research on investment ideas for the fund manager.
This role entails arranging for long-term finance for infrastructure and industrial projects which will take a long time to pay back. The first step is to understand the project, conduct a feasibility study, risk assessment and a detailed financial model. This is done with the purpose to rope in equity partners (known as sponsors) and lenders. Generally the lending part is done by multiple banks under leadership of the syndicate bank.
6. Financial Risk Management: Financial risk management is the practice of creating economic value in a firm by using financial instruments to manage exposure to risk, particularly credit risk and market risk. Similar to general risk management, financial risk management requires identifying its sources, measuring it, and plans to address them. Financial risk management can be qualitative and quantitative. As a specialisation of risk management, financial risk management focuses on when and how to hedge using financial instruments to manage costly exposures to risk. In the banking sector worldwide, the Basel Accords are generally adopted by internationally active banks for tracking, reporting and exposing operational, credit and market risks.
This role entails the entire plethora of banking services required by corporates. Corporate can be divided into largely two sections Large Corporates and MSME which is Medium and Small enterprises. A corporate banker would thus have companies as his clients and service them. Within corporate banking some of the departments are:
• Credit Borrowing to companies for their expansion and working capital requirements. Would entail doing a credit evaluation on the company and sanctioning the loan
• Treasury Help companies manage various types of risks such as foreign exchange, interest rate fluctuations. Treasuries also take proprietary positions to make profit in the 'forex' and bond markets.
• Cash Management Solutions: As most companies have a large number of customers, distributors or branch offices across the country it becomes a huge challenge to deal in money. Banks offer cash management solutions to help streamline this entire operation for its corporate customers.
8. Wealth Management: Wealth management is an investment advisory discipline that incorporates financial planning, investment portfolio management and a number of aggregated financial services. High net worth individuals, small business owners and families who desire the assistance of a credentialed financial advisory specialist call upon wealth managers to coordinate retail banking, estate planning, legal resources, tax professionals and investment management.
Wealth managers can be independent, certified financial planners. One must already have accumulated a significant amount of wealth for wealth management strategies to be effective. Wealth management can be provided by banks, brokerages, independent financial advisers or multi-licensed portfolio managers whose services are designed to focus on high-net worth customers.
The fallout of the events of 2008 has produced a high level of skepticism and distrust among investors, and they will demand greater transparency from their providers to understand what they own, the value of their investments and associated risks.
Also known as consumer banking, it entails dealing with products / services for individual customers. So the scope encompasses getting business for products such as credit cards, savings accounts, personal loans and auto loans. Operational roles would entail teller, authorising, clearing, remittances and customer service.
10. Corporate Finance: A career in corporate finance means you would work for a company to help it find money to run the business, grow the business, make acquisitions, plan for its financial future and manage any cash on hand. You might work for a large multinational company or a smaller player with high growth prospects.
The job of the financial officer is to create value for a company. As a corporate finance professional one is typicall involved in four main activities to meet its objectives: 1) designing, implementing and monitoring financial policies, 2) planning and executing the financing programme, 3) managing cash resources, and 4) interfacing with the financial community and investors.
Jobs in corporate finance are also relatively stable. Performance in these jobs counts, but your job is not going to depend on whether you're selling enough this week or getting good deals finished this quarter. Rather the key to performing well in corporate finance is to work with a long view of what's going to make your company successful. Many would argue that corporate finance jobs are the most desirable in the entire field of finance. Some of the benefits of working in corporate finance are:
• You generally work in teams which help you work with people
• It's a lot of fun to tackle business problems that really matter
• You'll have many opportunities to travel and meet people and
• The pay in corporate finance is generally quite good
Thus, a budding financial wiz should look at understanding which area interests him/her the most and build skill sets which can help take the leap into financial sector.
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