**INVEST IN IPOS MUTUAL FUNDS AND EQUITIES**
Investing money in the stock markets is **exciting and calls for guts, nerves and killer instincts. ** I always admire the great gamblers who come good wherever they gamble. Stock markets are not for the conservatives, chicken hearted folks with concepts of making a decent living with obsolete cliched phrases like **“HARD EARNED MONEY”. ** No one respects that. Not in the least burnt out fags like me.
**MY MARKET EXPERIENCES**
It was a red letter day *19th September 1992.* Our schools **OLD BOYS DAY.** By sheer chance I was able to make it to this meeting where the Chief Guest was none other than the charismatic **Madhav Rao Scindia.**
I met another old boy dude, Rajeev who used to be a few years my junior in school but a smart dude. Over drinks n dinner I asked him routine questions but his *replies was not routine.* He told me he was now a full time **Stock Market Player. **
I said “ Hey Raju, you were with the MNC naa? “ He replied that he was *no more a widow living on an MNC pension(read salary)* and that he had a **CARD** in the Pune and Mumbai stock exchange. Now a card in the Stock Exchange is **BIG BIG TIME! ** A card carrying broker is bigger than all the big SHARKS in the sea!
Now that was a strong trigger. He handed me his visiting card and said “Meet me in my office if you can.” My decision to meet him **SEALED MY FATE!**
**RAJU THE STOCK MARKET PLAYER**
Rajeev came from a less than well to do back ground. He was academically inclined and always fared well in exams. Years later he finished his Engineering and landed up with a great job in an MNC. He started dabbling in stocks, came good and decided to go into Stock Market operations full time.
I went to his office. He was a young 32 years old, an air-conditioned office in an up market address, smart building. Clients were begging for his time in the waiting room. He had a great car, a great apartment and was swaggering as if he owned the world.
He greeted me with aplomb! He said, “ Friend read this book. It is simple. I can either invest your money direct or else you can lend it to me at an assured return of 18 percent.”
I read the slim book on Stock Market For The New, ignored all the cautious advises decided to invest myself and become rich like Rajeev.
**INVESTMENT IN EQUITIES**
I placed orders worth Rs 40, 000/- and lo! The stocks landed in my hands a few weeks later. All Blue Chip companies I dare say.
**I was now a player. ** I fanatically read the Economic Times, Dalal Street Journal. And what else. I started to do **forward trading. ** Everything in life became secondary to the Market Forces. **
Harshad Mehta(God Bless his soul) pushed the market through the stratospheric roof! The combination of Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh did great for the confidence of the Stock Market. I went forward with deals of 50k, then 60 k and so on. Week later I sold. Money money money I made! What I made in a week I never made in a year by yours truly “Hard earned money” concept. Christ, I was making money just using my brains while poor factory workers were sweating it out pushing manufacturing figures. I was an expert at P/E ratios, Profit after Tax, Dividends, Fundamentals, Technicals, Bonus shares and all the stock market jargon. **I WAS KING!**
My 40 k became 180 K. Cool, when my stocks went up, I sold and reinvested. Those stocks where the prices went down I brought again at lower prices to “AVERAGE” my initial high price. *Man this more exciting than Horse Racing and even SEX!*
I started to think big and boasted to all my friends how I was on my way to becoming a Millionaire! All this while, Raju…………… smiled.
**THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED!**
One black day! Just one bad day!
The **BABRI MASJID was brought down.** Riots all over India! The markets started to go down. Then the crash! Reliance was quoting at Rs 93/- ! My stocks were like worthless paper! Overnight my ego was deflating. I was like a scared rat wanting to jump off a sinking ship! My bravado, courage, deserted me. My wife kids! Gwaaaad! What did I do? Raju you sonnaa b*tch!
Raju was cool. “These things happen friend. Hang on.” Hang on? Christ, I have a family to feed man! I invested money that was not entirely mine!
**QED**
I sold everything….everything….booked my losses and moved out of the Market. Never went in to the Market again. I chugged along in life, quite lifeless. Like a widow!
Rajeev survived. In the bear run he prospered. He was safe.
Until a decade later a typhoon called **KETAN PARIKH ** and his 10 K stocks hit Raju hard. To cut a long story short, Raju was wiped out clean. From net worth of Rs 4/- crores he signed outta the Market minus Rs 5 crores. But smart dude that he is he moved into Insurance and came good!
**WHEN TEMPTATION COMES YOU GIVE RIGHT IN!**
But now, 12 years later….I get tempted to gamble again. Once a gambler always a gambler!
My email box pops up with **SHARE KHAN.** Now there is demat! On line trading from home! SHAREKHAN excites me no end! Now I have Rs 3/- lakhs to invest! All saving instruments are down. PPF is useless, so are all the Vikas Patras. I have no family to support. Kids all settled. No worry no hurry!
**SHARE KHAN……I will be in your JAWS sooner than later! **