Ever since we took up a major research exercise last year,
we have been screaming hoarse about the need to simplify the jargon associated
with finance in general and broking in particular. A large number of people
want to invest and a large number open their trading account, but you see a
large amount of dormancy within the system. The reason is simple – the whole
environment is far too intimidating. Way too much rubbish is used for a lot of
the names. The money you give a broker to carry out transactions is called ‘margin’,
then there is the ‘ledger’ and ‘payout’ is done on a ‘T+2 basis’ after which
the shares hit your ‘demat’ account and of course there is the ‘bid and ask’ as well as ‘spread’,
‘impact cost’, ‘PE multiples’ available. All this is scary especially when you
are looking to invest money in bid to exercise control over your destiny. Basically
the poor soul feels constrained and helpless when trying to invest in shares.
But no one seems to be listening. You will find even more
incomprehensible offers with thousands of lines of fine print for everything
and the dice firmly loaded against you. In the back drop of all this is the
Union Budget. You have the jamboree every Feb end where the finance minister
gets up and presents what is essentially a nonevent. But the TV channels have
managed to hype it and create enough buzz so as to charge astronomical premiums
for advertisers and attract eyeballs. No one understands jack of what is
presented and no one understands jack of the impact of these proposals. Key
terms are misunderstood and people are watching in a bid to see where the
markets react to the whole charade.
So in light of all that we decided to set up a micro site
called budget simplified. Among other stuff we decided to shoot videos explaining
the budget to the common person. What is it and what does one look for in the
budget. Short two minute videos that give a fair idea into the whole process. Having
less money we decided that I would be the model for the videos. Nine videos
should be easy enough. One day shoot and we wrap it up. Boy I was wrong. One
shoot it was but the videos were bloody difficult to shoot. One is at first
pretty stiff in front of the cameras. It takes time to get a bit lose and to
free up. At first the lights and the focus is a bit intimidating but over the
day it worked out pretty fine. The other problem is the energy level. One has
to maintain an energy level through the day. You have to perform at higher
degrees of energy every time you are in front of the camera. Afternoon was tough
for me. It showed on the screen. One can actually feel it when the
cinematographer tells you that “sir, energy nahi aa raha hai performance mein.”
Yes of course. I had to actually pull off reserve energy form the system to
give a ‘performance’. Wow. It’s a tough job. I now have new found respect for
models and actors and have a small insight into how they must be going about
their everyday life. I did not have the additional burden of trying to look
good. Those guys need to manage that as well through the day. And the stakes
are ridiculously high for them and everyone. Here I was the boss on the set, so
everyone was forced to be patient with me and I could modify the lines as I saw
fit as I was the quasi script writer as well. Imagine if you are getting paid
for this and your opinion on script counts for jack. Wow. Running around trees
can also be stressful. Nevertheless, at end of it, the videos did come out
pretty cool and I did manage to remain standing. Here are the videos.
They are pretty simple explanations for a lot of the stuff. If
finance or economics hold no interest for you, you have bets leave these videos
unwatched, but if you have even a passing interest in these topics then you may
find the same quite interesting and educative. We have tried to keep things at a
very simplistic level and repeated a lot of the concepts. Have fun and let me
know.
