Companies, Shares, and Stock Markets

We have been talking about the financials of a company and how we can analyse their statements. Now let us try and use our knowledge to earn some moolah by investing in shares of a company in the stock market:)

A little background first. Public companies raise money for their operations by issuing shares to the general public. These shares are transferable, meaning, the original shareholder can sell her shares to anybody else who wants to own it. The market where the original and subsequent shareholders sell and buy shares of companies is called the Secondary Market. The stock markets, like BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) and NSE (National Stock Exchange), are examples of the secondary market.

If you take a look at a stock quote in the newspaper or the Internet, you will see something like this:

Company Name : a b b ltd.
		Open	Intra Day		52 Week	Prv Close	Volume
NSE	1647.75 108.00	1600.00	High	1662.00	4841.00	1539.75	272977.00
			Low	1585.05	950.05
		Open	Intra Day		52 Week	Prv Close	Volume
BSE	1643.65 95.65	1607.00	High	1659.00	4845.00	1548.00	60095.00
			Low	1590.00	955.00

The information is quite self explanatory. You see the name of the company followed by information about how the stock fared in the stock exchange on that particular day( or till that point in time in case of a live quote):

• The first column provides the current price of the stock on both the exchanges. This is the price that you will have to pay to buy one share of the company on that day.
• The information in green signifies an increase in price over the previous day. Any decrease would be displayed in red.
• The column titled Open displays the price quoted at the beginning of the day.
• The next column displays the lowest price and highest price quoted for the stock during the day.
• The highest and lowest prices quoted for the stock in the last 52 weeks is displayed next.
• The next column has information about the closing price of the stock on the previous day.
• The last column displays the number of shares of the company traded during the day's session.

More on stocks and prices later...

Are you a Good Retail Banker?

As a retail banking executive, how do you know if you are good at your work? Here are some indicators to prove that you are indeed good:

• Does a customer walk into the branch and ask for you?
• Is she willing to wait till you are free even if another counter is free?
• Do you remember to greet her by her name?
• Does she take your word without question?
• Does she tell her friends and relatives to meet you to open their accounts?
• Does she talk to you first whenever she needs some assistance with her accounts?
• Even if she comes to the branch to talk to somebody from another department, does she stop to say a quick Hi?

If the answer to at least five of the questions above is yes, then great going!! I would recommend your manager to put you on the fast track for promotion:)

Tips for Effective Retail Banking

Here are some tips for being a good a retail banking executive:

• Always wear a smile. How often have you been put off by that grouchy shopkeeper or bus conductor?
• Dress neatly. That does not mean that you need to dress expensively.
• Keep your desk clean. Your workplace is a reflection of yourself. An untidy desk tells the onlooker, "Look at me! Why is my master so disorganized ??"
• Talk pleasantly. But remember that people are generally suspicious of sweet-talking people.
• Try to talk the language of the customer; but only if you know it well. You better off talking sense in a language you know than conveying incorrect information while trying to talk the customer's language.
• Be quick. Remember that your customer has probably taken an hour's permission from his boss to get his work done.
• Be polite with customers who don't know much about banking transactions. If they knew as much as you do, then you might have been out of job.
• Never accept gifts and favors from customers. Accept a nice organizer from your customer and the next day he will request you pass a cheque against funds in clearing...
• Please, please, think before you "commit" a transaction on your banking software.
• Spend time on learning and self improvement. You do want a promotion, don't you?

If anybody is reading this, then please help me improve this list...