Education in Markets

Getting educated in markets is pretty expensive affair since our mental clocks aren’t drilled in the way its required to for success in markets. Since unlike any other field of expertise, one really doesn’t need to have a formal professional education (not that having it ensures success, it only means you open your innings with higher odds), it attracts all kinds of people with the only common factor among most of them being that they have money to risk.

Unlike other professions, learning about markets isn’t easy in the formal education set-up. You may learn a bit about it by doing a MBA, but the theory one learns and the reality once faces when exposed to the real world is spaces apart. You can on the other hand complete a certification course such as CFA (for Fundamentals) or CMT (for Technicals) to get a better understanding of how to go about doing business (read Investing / trading) in the markets.

Other than the above International Certifications, here in India, we can find many companies / Individuals offering courses for the short to medium term. The course fee for such ranges from Rs.2500.00 (One Day) to a multi month mentorship programme costing Rs.8 Lakhs +

While I can understand the acceptability and popularity of cheaper courses, I really fail to understand who in the right mind would want to pay Lakhs of Rupees as fees for learning from some one who in all probability doesn’t earn much from the markets in any case (why take un-necessary risks when its easier to earn money by preaching to newbies).

If you are willing to invest a few lakhs, my own advise would be to spend the money on accredited courses from leading institutions (in India “National Institute of Financial Management” comes on top of my mind. You find plenty of them in US Universities as well) since the recognition that entails and faculty who you can meet can rally add value to deeper concepts and thoughts.

While I have reached my current stage without attending any such courses (when I entered the markets, there were not many structured courses anyways), I do believe that one can get some benefit out of them. But there is no short cuts to markets and the only way to survive out here is to learn and un-learn (as and when we come across new data that seems to conflict our initial outputs). 

While learning from the markets without any experience or guidance is a expensive affair, it doens’t have to mean that you need to pay an arm and leg to get that.

Choose Wisely!

Disclaimer: I have taught students when I was working in an organisation before as part of my responsibilities.