Kotak Securities in Kochi recently approached me with an offer to do portfolio management for a small sum of money (usually, managers need at least Rs 5 lakhs, but they offered to trade on my behalf if I invested at least Rs. 50, 000). The promise was that they would do intra-day trades and let me know of any profit or loss on a daily basis. Since they seemed very professional, I decided to put in an initial investment of Rs. 50, 000 and see how things went.
Initially they would call me and tell me wonderful stories, like ’’we made a profit of Rs.1000 today’’ and so on! Then no calls came for 2 days. On enquiry, I was told that they did not make any investments as the markets were very volatile. ’’Fine, ’’ I said. But when I started getting contract notes for the days on which no investments were supposedly made, I got curious, and asked for an upto-date accounts of my investment. Suddenly, I got a call saying that I was nearly Rs.7000 in the red! Apparently they had made mistakes in trading, and had not bothered to inform me!
I dont know if they were trading in their own names using my money, and pocketing the profits and shunting the losses in my name. I have no proof of what they have done and cannot do anything much since they took a power of attorney from me at the time of opening the account, claiming it is standard practice! So all I can say is, stay clear from this swindling brokerage house