Nairobbery: A day at the market

The trading floor:
The floor consists of a large white board separated my columns, with
each listed company habiting a row. This my friends , is where all the action is. This is where millions and cents get thrown around; to the untrained eye a trading sesison seems like a pandemonium of agitated monkeys in red suits ,but look closer and you will find there is great method to their madness. Trading goes on from 10am to 12 pm Monday to Friday(yes ONLY 2 HOURS a day).

So how do deals get made? How is brockering executed? how can something so complex be just be written on a board????? Ok cowboy hoold ya horses.. super busy and instead send your trusted aid with cash to buy you whatever you want. Now imagine every one else including the traders are just as busy, and send their trusted
aides as well. So all trusted aides get to gikosh and realise hmmmmmmm interesting... we have all this money & property that doesnt belong to us - how bout we make some good use of it
and hope to make our masters happy?? So trouble starts brewing in Paradi-ehem gikosh, and the scheming begins.

So we come to board writing - the archaic respected skill of writing
bids and offers on the board. Not as easy as it sounds..the floor
is abound with trickery and deceit: Ok dealer willing to sell of 100 shares of Mumias Sugar shouts to Mr Chief board writer,
clearly indicating offer price and volume. This is chorwad in the offer column with the broker being identified by a fixed code known to all. Bids are carried out in the same open-air-market-like fashion. Brokers can overbid and under offer each other for the same security, all subject to price spreads.

Price spreads...nothing complicated..just upper and lower bounder limits placed on each share price based on their previous trading value. Somewhat sheilds them from drastic devaluation/appreciation
tactics applied by brokers all the time.

So if a bid and offer come within two spreads the deal is closed at the ave. price of the bid and offer..eg..if
spread: 0.05 bid: 10.10 offer:10: the deal closes at:10.15 for as much supply meets demand. The bid and offer can come between one spread, in which case the deal is closed at the offer price.

So ardent interns like myself master this anatomy of a trade and insert closed deals as they occur into their oracle databases...when i'm not doing this i'm trying to infer as much as my technical
non-business mind can from these market fluctuations in order to build a virtual portfolio. I have sworn to myself to start investing, and let me swear again..jus one little thing I'm missing: the chumz!! I was super inspired by Way South's blogging and suddenly Debt is not such a taboo for me anymore. I guess that officially make me a Capitalist.

Notice how closed the market trading is to the investor, who has no clue of the real time trades Unless ofcourse he skives jobo to come to the veiwing booth at the floor, or calls his broker company, who will have to call their on floor brokers for a querry. Completely ridikyulas. At first I couldnt understand how such relevant dynamic info could be withheld form the investor, but hey, the market has survived thus far.

The prices you see on financial news on TV are the days averaged prices. In an world where the phrase TIME IS MONEY holds so much weight, You cannot imagine the amount of time being wasted. I find it odd that this doesnt seem to be an issue for many at the NSE, whose job it is to make the market as investor friendly & timely.

The Brokers:

It came as no shock that the broker langua franca is KYUK!!! My guy if your a jeng or a chut, ebu brush up on your 'aterere' lest u forever remain outside the lucrative hush-hush loop of security dealing. There are 28 listed broker COmpanies, each of home send 1-3 brokers to the floor every morning. Each bring their own strategies and personalities t the floor, which can help or hurt the market on
any Given day. All the same heres how ive come to break it down..

1) The methodical, ritualistic.
As certain as death and taxes, This dude will walk in 10 minutes before trading time, issue the same practiced greeting, and will never appear excited.
Highly disciplined, he spends most of his time scratching his beard analysing
his sparse trading schedule. I like this guy.

2) the comic
This clown sees it is his duty to draw out any possible humour, has a loud annoying laugh, and true to his title cracks up most of the other brokers.Consequently he is taken less seriously, and his cleints may essentially suffer. Nice guy overall. More than half of his time is spent making roundspicking on other brokers.

3) the high roller
My personal fav. This guy either belongs to Standard Stocks or CFCS (big timers in the industry) and spend their time switching between two of their cell phones in relatively loud aggressive tones. This dude doesnt deal in 'spare change' trades..we are talking deals in the hundereds of thousands plus. His ego is bursting out of his frame, and he is masquarading on the urban legends/bar talk perpetuated amongst the brokers.

4) the iron lady
As if to make a LOUD statement in this male dominated genre, she ALWAYS dresses to KILL, with her cleavage doing the talking. Never having the time for (the many)petty chauvenist advances, it becomes clear that this is a chic with a plan. No game, no nonesense. always quick and edgy on the floor.

5) The silent
THis dude never sez a word. Always jus staring at some document or blankly in the air. Probly on some sort of trading probation from his parent company. Not a very happy camper.

6) the professional
Slightly older than the average, this seasoned broker doesnt say too little nor say too much. Doesnt really take part in trading, just waltzs around looking important and keep a close watch on the trades incase the Boss calls from the office. Usually comes paired with a slave broker formt he same company.


The investment options:
This one requires an whole blog altogether....


The general market trends:
The NSE is a TINY market by world standards , making it very susceptible to brokering firm manipulation. Larger market places like the NYSE, FTSE etc are hardly affected due to the size of the market. Here i believe given a fair amount of time (and whether they realize it or not), these 50 something odd brokers can honestly plot to crash the market.

So generally material info concerning a is the biggest influence on share price as in all other markets. Time of the year plays a big role; usally the market fairs better at the beginning of the year
and peaks at febuary, after which investor hopes are start dying away.

This year the market has slumped from their crazy growth last year.. u know the mantra- buy low sell high. Now is your chance.

My advice to you:
INVEST.QUICK.THERE IS NO RETURN WITHOUT RISK.