Kuber Wiz (2019-2020) Induction Ceremony: How to Become a Smart Investor?

Kathmandu College of Management successfully organized the induction ceremony of the 4^th Kuber Wiz Program on September 29, 2019, with three of top professionals from the financial sector of Nepal. Kuber Wiz is a one of a kind stock investment program in Nepal, which is formulated by Kathmandu College of Management that allows its students to get ample real world experience on stock market trading with the use of financial modelling. The program is administered by an array of professionals with an expertise in stock market trading, financial management and investment decisions, throughout the year.

The session started with a welcome note by two students wherein they unveiled the tagline of the program- "EXPLORE trading & investment scenarios to EVOLVE as a smart investor to EXCEL as a Kuber Wizard."

The session continued as Mr. Niranjan Phuyal, who has been working in the managerial position of Nepal Stock Exchange took the stage as the first speaker. Mr. Phuyal spoke primarily about the roles of Stock Exchange in facilitating investors. He gave some very valuable insights on what an investor must know before they enter the market. Mr. Phuyal firmly articulated that risks and returns are two faces of the same coin, and our ultimate goal as an investor should be to find and invest in stocks that have low risks and high returns. 80 percent of investors believe in "Riding hot, Selling cold", which means investing in companies that look great in picture, have high demands, and selling the ones with lower demands. In fact, a lot of investors still rely upon the rule of thumb instead of using technical and fundamental analysis to choose stocks to invest in. Furthermore, we should be able to classify price sensitive and price insensitive information and react appropriately to it. He, thus encouraged the students to become a smart investor like Mr. Warren Buffet by investing in companies that have high fundamentals and low attention, and by always aiming to earn higher than what the market is earning.

After getting some invaluable knowledge about the stock market from Mr. Phuyal, the students had the opportunity to get firsthand information about brokerage firms and how they fit into the cycle of investment from Mr. Nitesh Agrawal- the executive chairman of ABC securities. Mr. Agrawal expressed that a stock market is a place where one can create wealth, and brokerage firms facilitate this process by acting as the middle man between the buyers and the sellers of the securities. He stated that a stock market is as close as a market can get to a perfectly competitive market, and without the provision of licensed brokers, it would come to resemble a fish market. Brokerage firms keep the investment process organized by placing orders on behalf of their clients and charging a commission fee for it. From Mr. Agrawal's over 13 years of experience in dealing with various kinds of investors, his primary advice was to always set clear objectives before investing in any stocks, and to sell the stocks as soon as those objectives are met. He quoted, "it doesn't take courage to buy shares but it takes a lot of courage to sell them."

The final speaker of the session was the CEO of Merolagani.com, Mr. Atit Lal Shrestha, who has undergone the training of Technical Analysis from US Stock Market via T3 Trading Corp, LLC. His main agenda during the speech was to clarify if investors should use financial news for stock analysis. Mr. Shrestha had a very firm answer to that, which was a big 'No'. We, as investors should learn to perform technical analysis of companies and their stocks so that we will never need to depend on any financial news. The stock market is always at a tug of war between buyers and sellers, and the only way to beat the market is to win this war every time. Mr. Shrestha vocalized the importance of becoming a smart investor and to get ahead of the market, and the only way to do that is by doing things before it becomes the news. Investors can never hope to get higher returns than the market if they are depending on the financial news to make their investment decisions. At the end of his speech, Mr. Shrestha was gracious enough to give all of the students an access to the data analytics in Merolagani.com throughout the Kuber Wiz Program of 2019/20 to give the students a competitive advantage as investors.

The induction program came to an end after a Q&A session between the speakers and the students. When Mr. Agrawal was asked about the implications of brokerage firms not paying the regulatory SEBON fee on innocent investors, he wholeheartedly agreed that the laws in Nepal should be amended so that the real perpetrators get penalized instead of causing opportunity losses to the investors by suspending the brokerage firm. Another brilliant question was asked by a student wherein he was confused about how he could excel in the Kuber Wiz program if the only way to earn good profit was by planning for long term. The speakers explained how planning for long term is the best way to ensure good profits but it is not the only way. Mr. Agrawal then reiterated what he said during his speech about making clear goals and objectives, be it for short term or long term, and sticking to it. The billion dollar question was finally asked by a student - "Is it really a good time to enter the market when the Nepalese Stock Market has clearly been in a downward trend?" The three speakers had a common answer to that question. The market is always changing and there isn't ever a perfect time to enter. The capital gains depend upon the market trend but the fundamentals and the intrinsic value of a stock is completely independent of the market trend. So, as a smart investor, we should be able to find stocks of companies that offer a long term value instead of stocks that offer a short term profit and we won't have to worry about how the market is performing.