Why You Should Attend Investor Awareness Programs in Your Locale?

Preface

A few days ago, there was an invitation in a local newspaper for an investor awareness program. The topics of discussion were the impact of the central government budget on the economy, the recent developments in the capital market, and an insight into the investment opportunities arising out of budget allocations to various sectors. The event was organized by a local stockbroker along with the National Stock Exchange of India. At the very first glance, I decided to attend this investor awareness meeting. So, is there any benefit in participating in such investor awareness programs?

You know I am averse to investing in gold, mutual funds, real estate, or even parking money in fixed deposits (except emergency money). However, I am interested in investing in equities directly. As far as investing in equities, my ardent view is that there is nothing better for an investor than to read, sit back and think. Furthermore, I take part in such investor awareness conventions, provided they are free, owing to the following reasons:

Boost your morale

One of the good things about such investor awareness programs is that you get to know how naive people are in relation to investing in equities. They still view stock exchanges as casinos! Almost all of them never see equities as fractional ownership. They fail to know that if the underlying business prospers, the stock price would follow. Most of them believe in complete luck and are in the dark why stocks move up! So by participating in an investor awareness program, you will get to know how reading has shaped you as a better investor. You’ll get to know how well ahead you are with respect to others. Your confidence level ought to go up attending such investor awareness programs if you remained a voracious reader earlier.

Flock with birds of the same feather

In a country where people are obsessed with investing in real estate and gold, investor awareness conferences conducted by stock exchanges are places where you could find retail equity investors, a place where birds of the same feather flock together. Retail investors of different investing acumen attend such investor awareness conventions. Take time to find investors of your wavelength among the crowd. Take the initiative to interact with the people whom you think are intellectuals. If you want to gravitate upwards in investing, you have to mingle with people who are better than you.

Gain different perspectives on the subject

When you attend such investor awareness conferences, you get different perspectives on the subject discussed by the speakers. For instance, one of the speakers in the meeting I attended pointed out that planned expenditure equaled to interest outgo in the budget. He also pointed out that in the ongoing efforts of the government to bring subsidies down, only the subsidy given to fuel has come down, whereas the rest of the subsidies have either remained the same or have gone up. I didn’t note these in the budget until then. Sometimes you grasp things better by hearing than reading.

Get vital clues

Owing to the legalities involved, sometimes newspapers and magazines may not be able to publish all the information they have at hand (such as rumors and gossips). You may not get bad intentions of a company’s management on its annual reports either. However, you get vital information about crooked promoters, dishonest managements, or operator driven stocks at such conferences via word of mouth. So participating in such investor awareness programs aids us with information about companies to avoid investing. Information is wealth.

Clear doubts

We are in an age of information aplenty, thanks to the Internet. However, there may still remain doubts without clear answers. So, these awareness programs are where you can find the answer to your queries. Usually, most of the investor conferences end up with a question and answer session. You can take advantage of this session to clear your doubts on the subject matter of discussion. Writing down the queries that you would like to raise beforehand would be useful.

Bottom line

Though such investor awareness programs are aimed at getting new clients for the brokers, do not shy away from participating in such conferences or programs in your town. It is not a waste of time if you are interested in investing directly in equities or in mutual funds or any other product dealt with by the stock exchanges. Just consider it as a social get together. However, make sure you do not sign up with any “attractive” offers handed out by the broker.

For attending such investor education programs, you are not traveling far either. Most of the times such initiatives are provided free to the investors. NSE, BSE, NSDL, CDSL, and SEBI conduct investor awareness programs on a regular basis. You just need the will to attend and make some adjustments in your schedules. The benefits are many if your mind is open to learning.