Taking 'Stock' of Dalal Street

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Bootcamp, an opportunity made available to distance learning students studying in India by the University of London and London School of Economics.

The BSE Bootcamp essentially focused on students getting a peek at the functioning of the Indian stock markets at the esteemed BSE Institute, a part of Asia’s oldest stock exchange. Its’ history dates back to 1855, when 22 stockbrokers would gather under banyan trees in front of Mumbai's Town Hall. Now, standing high and mighty on Dalal street, the BSE is a well-known structure in Mumbai; the numbers, company names and symbols flashing on the Rotunda significant in determining how each businessman’s day post-9.30am will work out.

Being in the epicenter of all this buzz and activity was a thrilling way to get an idea of how everyday investors and traders decode and decipher the jargon of charts. I witnessed first-hand the wild volatility of not only the Indian economy but also the global economy and saw how experts were able to exploit market imperfections and make monetary gains.

As a student pursuing the BSc in Economics and Finance, the BSE Bootcamp provided a window of opportunity to look into the practical world of all the theoretical material that I have absorbed over the last three years. I couldn’t help but be amazed by the marriage of these two fields and the strong interdependence they have on each other, and just how explicitly this is reflected in real world decision-making.

In all honesty, I felt like a kid in a candy store, getting to see the trading floor, taking part in simulation trading on the exchange’s own software programme, even getting to see the historic Convention Hall, known famously in the old times as ‘The Ring’. One could easily feel the atmospheric presence of a deep-rooted history circulating in the core of the building.

It also assisted me and my peers in getting a chance to meet other students studying in different parts of India and so the Bootcamp ended up being a great platform to meet with our national counterparts studying similar modules and making for pretty interesting conversation.

All in all, the BSE Bootcamp taught me some crucial fundamentals related to the Indian economy and gave me a practical insight in becoming a wise investor and a forward-looking global thinker.

Priyanshi is studying the BSc Economics and Finance in India