The first day of April is recognized as April Fool Day all over the world. Though the origin of this concept is in the western world, it is one of the ideas that we have accepted very well. From the school going kids to the senior citizens play tricks to make an April fool of one another. Most of us who are hooked to our mobile and computers keep getting SMS and emails since end of February making us an April fool and reminding us of this day.
However some of us are made April fool of the year. This year the honour goes to those who have tried their luck in stock markets. Many of the first timers have entered the stock markets at the fag end of the calendar year 2007 with an intention to make a quick buck. However the fall in the first two months of the year 2008 left many of us clueless. Now as the value of portfolio has eroded significantly many of us are planning exit. And here is a possibility to turn out to be the April fool of the year. As the markets have turned lucrative it is the time to buy but most of the small first timer retail guys are considering an exit. This will ensure that they will never come back to the market as the losses have made them wary of markets.
There is a need to spend in a more focused manner on the investor education. Otherwise, year after year we will meet many more April fools from this segment. The investor education is topic is being spoken about is because that is one such segment where there is a need of an activity but there is a little happening by the way of exchanges' investor protection funds. At the same time, there is a crop many shenanigans that talk of investor education for 'super duper profits' in no time. There is a need at the regulator's end to focus on some investor programme which will make investors aware of the realities of the market. Also there is a need to do these programmes in various languages and not just English. Most of us neither understand the business nor English. We are sure the new chairman of SEBI- Chandrashekhar Bhaskar Bhave – will surely spend some time handling this critical issue at the very start of the financial year. We wish you all a happy financial year and a not fooling fool's day ahead.
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