Presents
The Giga Trading Summit
THE NEXT BIG BET
(L-R): Pranav Haldea, MD, Prime Database Group, Rajeev Arora, CEO, FINO Finance, Jimeet Modi, CEO & Founder, SAMCO Securities, Sunil Singhania, Founder, Abakkus Asset Managers LLP, Abha Bakaya, Panel Moderator,
Adhil Shetty, Co-founder & CEO, BankBazaar.com, Vivek Belgavi, Partner & Leader - Fintech, PwC India, Dhiraj Sachdev, Sr.VP & Fund Manager- Equities, HSBC Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd.
New technologies like
artificial intelligence
and advanced analytics
will make managing and
investing money easier
than ever before
MAHESH NAYAK
T
he Indian equity market has
remained subdued with
downward bias for the past
few weeks. Weak domestic
and global cues saw the market grap-
pling with volatility. In such a scenario
everyone today wants to know what
is happening to the Indian markets
and most importantly how does one
protect its capital while making good
returns from investing in the stock
market.
On 16 March 2018, the Economic
Times along with discount broking
firm SAMCO Securities held its Giga
Trading Summit in Mumbai inviting six
industry experts for a panel discussion
on the use of technology to shape the
future of trading in the Indian stock
market. The event also saw the launch
of a new market trading app –Stock
Note by SAMCO Securities giving a
new experience and ease of trading
for traders and investors.
Edited Excerpts:
When it comes to investing in the market
whether or not technology work and
does technology helps in making better
choices?
Sunil Singhania, Founder, Abakkus
Asset Managers LLP: Earlier informa-
tion was privy of a select few but today
investor is more empowered and in-
formed as information is almost in-
stant. Technology is an opportunity
and also a challenge in the market.
While these tools have increased the
efficiency in the markets and increas-
ing efficiency is good for investors, you
have to be clear of what you are plan-
ning to do. Are you an investor or a
trader? For instance if you are an inves-
tor you don’t need the technology
where you can trade instantaneously,
while for trader the new app based
technology is Godsend. Use of tech-
nology from an investment perspec-
tive is different from that of a trading
perspective.
How easy is to bring customers to the
market and how are they adapting to
technology?
Jimeet Modi, CEO, SAMCO Securities:
We’re targeting this to young custom-
ers or so-called millennial customers
who are in the age bracket of 18 to 40
years. Today’s millennial customer is
very different from the one 20 years
ago. Earlier the customer wanted a
Interview with Jimeet Modi, CEO and Founder, SAMCO SECURITIES
Why is the trading and investing
space in India for disruption?
Historically, competition in the in-
dustry was always based on price
and distribution, never on products.
There is a huge opportunity to dis-
rupt this space with compelling and
innovative solutions. Technology is
an enabler and the industry is now
ripe for disruption.
How did Giga Trading happen?
We wanted to build an engine for
captive consumption, which could
churn market information to gener-
relationship manager to call him and
talk to him, whereas today’s millenni-
al customer is impulsive in nature,
wants to go online and make instant
purchase decision and therefore ad-
aptation of technology is extremely
high. Today 75 per cent of all
(SAMCO’s) clients are below the age
of 35, so it’s essentially a customer
who is always on the go, who is al-
ways on his mobile phone or on the
web wants to make quick decisions.
What we believe is that technology
adaptation in the next 5 to 10 years is
going to be at a pace which we have
never seen before in the past few
years and that’s where we are.
How do you see some of these instru-
ments democratising the use of technol-
ogy for first time users?
Pranav Haldea, managing director,
Prime Database Group: We have to
look at who is an investor and who is
a trader. I would like to bring in a slight
differentiating factor in terms of, while
consumers you would want to close a
transaction in five minutes, but do we
want a huge section of our retail inves-
tors to be buying and selling stocks in
the five minutes closure rates versus
looking at a long-term investment
strategy. Stock markets are not simple.
Investing is a full time profession and
therefore my advice to first-time inves-
tor always remains that they should
come through mutual funds, they
should use the services of profession-
al fund managers and if they are com-
ing through stocks then they have to
come as an investor and not really as
a trader.
Having lot of information at your dis-
posal is very good but it can also be
very bad. What people are looking for
is actionable insight. If the app like
Stock Note that runs through huge
volumes of data can produce action-
able insight than of course it is going to
benefit retail investors.
How will such app (Stock Note) help in-
vestors in a holistic view and attract con-
sumers?
Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com:
The very fact that these tools are now
available to people who potentially
never thought of using a mobile app
and today to do things like this are go-
ing to come into the fold. One of the
big roles the Fintech have played is to
bring millions and millions of people
that would otherwise wouldn’t have
transacted online.
I think we are effectively collaborat-
ing with various manufacturers, it
could be a mutual fund manufacturer
or it might be an insurance manufac-
turer, to say that every stakeholder has
a USP be that of the fintech or the mo-
bile app provider that has the USP to
ate simple ideas for investment and
trading. In the process we ended up
creating the Giga Trading engine,
which essentially uses artificial intel-
ligence (AI) and advance analytics to
process huge volumes of market in-
formation and give filtered ideas.
How will AI and advance analyt-
ics change investing in India?
AI and advance analytics can ex-
pand the horizon of opportunities
for investors. Technologies like
these can overcome limitations of
the human mind to process limit-
“You’ll make money if
you’re away from the
crowd....you have to
work out your own path
and use technology as
an assistant.”
SUNIL SINGHANIA
FOUNDER, ABAKKUS ASSET
MANAGERS LLP
“Having lot of
information at your
disposal is very good
but it can also be very
bad. What people are
looking for is
actionable insight.”
PRANAV HALDEA
MANAGING DIRECTOR, PRIME
DATABASE GROUP
get people online and get people to
engage online over a period in time.
I’m seeing a lot of collaboration
wherein the mobile phone app pro-
vider has a key strength and the man-
ufacturer have some key strength and
everyone is realising that it is not a ze-
ro-sum game and we can actually col-
laborate and help each other out
here.
How is technology making markets
crazy?
Singhania: Today information is avail-
able to vast majority and at the same
time and everyone wants to act on
ed information and therefore track
limited opportunities. The applica-
tion of AI in trend analysis and pat-
tern recognition in other walks of
life is known, and is likely to be
used in stock markets extensively.
SAMCO with its StockNote plat-
form hopes to lead this revolution
in India.
How will you distribute the pow-
er of this platform to retail inves-
tors?
So far, the power of all advanced select institutional investors and market has mostly been distant
technologies has been restricted to algorithm-based trading. The retail from these technologies. We plan
“One of the big roles the
Fintech have played is to
bring millions and mil-
lions of people that
would otherwise
wouldn’t have transact-
ed online.”
ADHIL SHETTY
CO-FOUNDER & CEO,
BANKBAZAAR.COM
“If you are investing
then you should have
the necessary skills to
be able to collaborate
recommendations with
independent data
sources and make that
independent choice.”
RAJEEV ARORA
CEO, FINO FINANCE
that information in the same direction
at the same time and that causes
huge volatility. I think if you’re clear on
fundamentals you can use technolo-
gy to strengthen your fundamentals,
you can make very big use of increas-
ing volatility and I think every chal-
lenge is in an opportunity and frankly
I would try to use every challenge
which technology throws as an op-
portunity. Ultimately each one of us
should be clear as to what we’re get-
ting into. There is no single thing in
isolation that can make you money, it
has to be a combination of lot of
things and technology is one that will
“In a digital world how
you get technology to
build trust. If you are
able to build trust you
will grow, if you’re not
able to build trust you
will not grow.”
VIVEK BELGAVI
PARTNER & LEADER,
FINTECH, PWC
aid you. What works for one is not
necessarily going to work for every-
one. The simple logic is you’ll make
money if you’re away from the crowd
and if technology alone is going to
point out to one direction, it is going to
point to million and billions of them in
the same direction, you have to work
out your own path and use technolo-
gy as an assistant.
How do you see the use of different tools
and technology to get information?
Dhiraj Sachdev, Sr VP & Fund
Manager, HSBC: We are living in an
information excess world that has
reached the consumer like never be-
fore and there is no difference be-
tween institutional and retail investors
on getting information. Every informa-
tion can have an exaggerated reac-
tion, stocks can be volatile but an in-
vestor has to have the EQ level high
enough to ensure that he doesn’t lose
the state of equanimity. They have to
be wise to ignore lot of information
which can be useless and that is very
important.
Technology is useful for trader’s com-
munity while for the investment com-
munity they should use it as a starting
point. It’s not just price that one has to
“Today’s millennial
customer is impulsive
in nature, wants to go
online and make in-
stant purchase decision
and therefore adapta-
tion of technology is ex-
tremely high.”
JIMEET MODI
CEO & FOUNDER,
SAMCO SECURITIES
A CONSUMER CONNECT INITIATIVE
“While you have
technology and access
to information
ecosystem that we are
living in but the basic
hygiene of investing
should not go away.”
DHIRAJ SACHDEV
SR VP & FUND MANAGER,
HSBC ASSET MANAGEMENT
(INDIA)
look but one has to look at other hy-
giene factors like understanding the
cash flow, balance sheet, the business
outlook and primary research which
cannot be eliminated by an investor,
time immemorial this has been the
basic of investing. While you have
technology and access to information
ecosystem that we are living in but the
basic hygiene of investing should not
go away.
How imperative is it for company to start
adapting to technology?
Vivek Belgavi, Partner & Leader,
Fintech, PWC: From a broader per-
spective what we need to solve is the
larger problem of saying how do we
increase adoption in the ecosystem
and use of technology to increasing
broad-based participation. The way I
see, first an incumbent would solve
the problem or someone from out-
side who owns the consumer, be a
Google or Amazon will solve the ex-
perience problem for the consumer.
Most importantly how do you build
trust in these models. In a digital
world how you get technology to
build trust. If you are able to build trust
you will grow, if you’re not able to built
trust you will not grow.
What is your view on AI and machine
learning in investment?
Rajeev Arora, CEO, FINO Finance:
The whole debate about AI (artificial
intelligence), it’s a black box. You’re
not sure why the decision was made
in the first place and there is whole lot
of effort going into AI to understand
why it has reached to a particular deci-
sion. When you make a recommen-
dation on a platform you could actu-
to distribute the Giga Trading en-
gine through our StockNote plat-
form - initially on Android and IOS,
and subsequently on the web.
Smartphones are likely to be the
biggest enablers for financial inclu-
sion, and we expect apps like
StockNote to lead this financial in-
clusion initiative.
What’s your customer base and
where do you plan to take it to?
We have roughly 75,000 customers,
and hope to close the next financial
year with 2 lakh.
ally be starting a chain reaction on the
underlying basis one will really have to
analyse, the good thing is you have
access to more information apart
from the recommendation that is be-
ing made to you and if you are invest-
ing then you should have the neces-
sary skills to be able to collaborate
recommendations with independent
data sources and make that inde-
pendent choice.
What has been your take on machine
learning?
Haldea: As Ridham Desai of Morgan
Stanley calls it JAM – Jandhan
Aadhaar and Mobile. Combination of
all these three things is going to play
a significant role. Smart phone pen-
etration is already 300 million and it’s
going to 600 million. Just 4 years
back there was 3500 Aadhaar trans-
action a day which is 61 million trans-
actions a day. So you are already us-
ing a base for a lot of financial sector
transaction. The other point which I
want to make is slightly off topic but
since we’re talking about large data
and machine learning and AI. There
is a bit of downside to it and I’ll give
you an example, we all agree the
world is becoming increasingly more
polarised and the large part is to do
with machine learning which we all
have access through social media
app. Because of machine learning
we’re going to get more good things
and similarly bad things. We have
also to think about the downside.
What it you view on the downside for the
use of technology?
Modi: There are very valid sort of
concerns around how technology
works. What I would like to say is the
beauty about machine is they are dis-
passionate. We live in a century were
book cooking is easier than it ever
was. One can’t rely simply on the bal-
ance sheet or a P&L of a listed corpo-
rate so you need to look into and
deep dive into a variety of factors,
machine and systems are made
smart enough to look through the
entire spectrum of things that are
likely to affect both investing and
trading. What will happen is that you
will have systems which are going to
be superior than the human mind
and the same time dispassionate be-
cause they do not have emotional
attachment to a particular corporate
or to a particular stock. So I think
every form of technology that exist
that is good and bad the important
thing we need to look at how we can
pick the good that exist across the
board and an amazing platform is
available to the end consumer and
this is what we are trying to attempt
to do with the new app stock note
What will be the biggest enablers
for market expansion?
Smartphones, cheap data services
and the Aadhaar ecosystem.
What’s the competitive landscape
in the broking industry and how
will it change?
The industry is consolidating; it will
move away from being price-com-
petitive to driven by products and
technological innovations. The fu-
ture will belong to those who cre-
ate great financial products, not
traditional service businesses.