A career in financial markets offers a good future across various talent pools, says Akshay Agarwal, Managing Director, Acumen Capital Markets.

Talking to students of the Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology at Kalady near Kochi recently, he drew their attention to the fact that regulators of the capital market offer various specialised courses targeted towards jobs in the stock markets.

Agarwal said he himself was initiated into capital markets in his early college days and felt it was good to begin investing early in one’s career as both future growth prospects and risk-taking capacities were in favour of the investor.

According to him, capital markets have historically offered higher returns than any other investment options. It is the most regulated market, thanks to the guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Invest in a good, diversified basket of assets, he advised, that include not just fixed deposits, but also shares, commodities, insurance, mutual funds and so on. And investing early adds the power of compounding to a portfolio, helping the money grow faster, and often making all the difference in times of need.

Agarwal elaborated on various types of investments, the risk and reward ratios, historical returns, advantages and disadvantages of each of the asset classes, and dealt with how to build an ideal portfolio, learning the difference between saving instruments and growth investments.

However, he sounded a note of caution with regard to risks involved in investing in shares and advised the students to study the company properly and get all the information before taking a decision.

He also said efforts should be made to attract more investors into stocks, as roughly only about 1.25 per cent of the Indian population is exposed to capital markets as against 40-45 per cent in developed countries.

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