As his clients panicked after the announcement of this year’s Union Budget on February 1, Sachin Kumar Chhajed, 36, had one patient explanation: that the streak of the stock market continuously seeing red was not a crash but a “much welcome correction”. With no let-up in the calls, Sachin also had a firm suggestion: “start buying when stocks are in the red”. “I keep telling clients, ‘Darro mat. Abhi toh invest karna shuru karo (Do not get scared. This is the time to start investing). From the level the markets had risen to, it is a better time now. I tell them to not invest all the money in one go. Always buy in a staggard manner and stick to fundamentally good companies,” says the 36-year old, while constantly peering into a terminal blinking with multiple red spots showing stock prices on the NIFTY exchange. It’s on days such as these that Sachin and wife Khushboo Chhajed, 32, who run SKH Investments at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, a firm offering financial services, are inundated with calls. “Clients want to know what is happening, will the market continue to fall, why is it happening. There is panic. Everyone is curious to see where the market is headed,” says Khushboo. Personally, she adds, the two of them try to remain unaffected and, with time, have become habituated to the ups and downs of the stock market. Having met through a relative and subsequently got married, the two set up the office in 2016. Both postgraduates in finance, they had been working in the finance sector earlier. While Sachin is a registered sub-broker with brokerage firm Sharekhan Limited, Khushboo assists him and provides other financial services, including mutual funds and insurance. Their day begins much before the opening bell of the stock market at 9 am. While Khushboo prepares their tiffins and readies their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter for school, Sachin checks the performance of the Singapore NIFTY, which opens earlier due to the time difference, looking for any global indicators that may impact the Indian stock exchanges. On the 15-minute drive from home to their office, after dropping their daughter to school, Sachin and Khushboo discuss the possibilities for Indian markets in the day. Once they reach office at around 8.45 am, Sachin switches on the flat television screen, right next to his terminal, and turns on a business channel. Apart from TV for real-time updates, like announcements by the Reserve Bank of India, policy changes, and results of companies, the couple tracks in-house Fundamental News and Analysis reports, which they get from Sharekhan every day. Their busiest hours are the 90 minutes after the market opens and before it shuts. “Usually, clients check the momentum at this time and decide on what to buy or sell,” says Sachin. This means that for him, lunch is usually only after the market shuts at 3.30 pm. “I mostly forget to have lunch,” he says. Even after the busy period, Sachin continues to fields calls from customers, asking him to buy or sell stocks on their behalf. “As per the client’s request, we punch the orders,” he says. “We usually make suggestions to clients based on various factors such as their risk appetite. The market is always full of opportunities to make money; one needs to be patient,” Sachin says. On big days like the Budget, clients are usually wary and impatient, he adds. “On such days, we expect a lot of volatility. I tell my customers that it is better to not trade on such days and to wait it out,” he says. By about 12.30 to 1.30 pm, the couple begin to track the performance of European markets and the Dow Jones in the United States. “It is necessary to keep track of these indices to get a sense on the momentum globally. For instance, the fall in the stock market recently was due to global factors affecting most indices worldwide,” Sachin says. His work, Sachin says, is as much as about battling perception as it is of advising clients. “Many who invest in stocks think of it as gambling. I hope to change that with my clients. It is about creating wealth for them in the long run. I was told by someone that some big traders even seek advice from psychologists before deciding where to invest,” he laughs. The couple get a brokerage sharing on the clientele they get and the trading done by the clients. Sachin says that higher the clientele and trading done, the higher the brokerage. “Earlier, clients only got information through their brokers. Now, they are also experts on their own. They constantly track prices, check news and other updates,” he says. Khushboo says that the difference between smaller brokers like them and the bigger ones is the customer base and the risk appetite. “A big broker has more risk-taking clients who have the potential to pump in their money, no matter what the market situation. While brokers like us usually have risk-averse clients. So we always guide customers to not take a leverage position so that they do not get impacted by the volatility in the market,” she says. Work at the office ends at around 5.30 pm. Then, the couple head out to market their services by setting up stalls at public places like nearby corporate offices or railway stations or attend customer calls. To break the stress of the day, Sachin says, he walks from their first-floor office to the 10th floor of the building. “That is my only way to take a break from the ups and downs of the market. After a point, one gets habituated to the work so it does not cause much stress. The only major stress is to the eyes from all the staring into the terminal throughout the day while tracking stocks,” he says. The couple reach home around 7.30 pm. Their daughter goes to Sachin’s parents’ house after returning from school. “There is a flip side to working together, in that we sometimes end up taking business home. But it is good to have her as my colleague as we can adjust work and home responsibilities better,” says Sachin.
