The Hindu Business Line : Announcing their arrival

People want to double their money in one month and often end up losing. Trying to time the market or ride a wave can get you caught on the wrong foot.

Fifteen years ago, if you opened a business newspaper or switched on a television channel, you would spot barely a handful of women occupying senior slots in the world of finance and investment. But today people like Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC or Kalpana Morparia of ICICI Bank have become both icons and role models for women, as well as men, in the profession.

Well, if women in banking and insurance were rare then, those in the world of equity were even more difficult to find. Marking their presence in this male-dominated world in the early and mid-90s were women like Jyoti Vaswani, Fund Manager (Equity), of JM Mutual Fund, and Srividhya Rajesh, Fund Manager of Sundaram Mutual Fund; two women Canvas talked to for this issue.

Srividhya Rajesh, Fund Manager, Sundaram Mutual Fund

Jyoti qualified as a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) in 1993 and her interest in equity research eventually brought her to JM eight years ago. But the hitherto male-dominated industry did not daunt her. "I joined equity research when there were quite a few women in the area, and it never mattered whether you were a girl or a guy; if you were professional you were respected," she recalls.

Jyoti Vaswani, Fund Manager, JM Mutual Fund.

But, 11 years down the line, even today when as a fund manager she interacts with high net worth investors — naturally male — the gender thing definitely creeps in. "Yes, seeing a woman fund manager does make a difference to them. To begin with, they always try to test you; because you are a woman they are not sure if you are really fit for the job you have undertaken. It is like undergoing an examination and if you pass it, they trust you and from then on it becomes a professional relationship. But the fact remains that you have to undergo this process because you are a woman."

Surprisingly enough, in a relatively more conservative place like Chennai, Srividhya, who handles two top-performing Sundaram MF schemes such as Sundaram Select Focus and Sundaram Growth, doesn't face "questions or scepticism... Investors track your performance and do have some idea of who they are dealing with. So, my being a woman does not bother them."

Would they tend to trust a woman more?

"Not really. In this industry you have to compete with everyone," says the woman who joined a broking firm in Chennai in 1994 after completing her Masters in Management from Bits, Pilani. Here she worked for two years before joining Sundaram. Researching mainly South-based companies in the textiles and engineering sector, Srividhya didn't feel out of place in what was a man's world in those days. "Though you did look the odd one out, one really didn't feel out of place because research, though requiring a lot of interaction with industry, also requires a lot of desk work."

`Fast-buck' pitfall

Coming to women investing in mutual funds, Jyoti says that unfortunately she hasn't come across too many women investors. She thinks women shy away from equity because they perceive it not only as a high-risk instrument but also akin to gambling and speculation.

"And women don't really want to get into gambling. Also, for many of them it is a case of not wanting to take a risk with something that you don't really understand, because the chances of losing money there are very high. So I guess being both risk-averse as well as home-makers, women tend to keep away from equity and go in for safer instruments like bank deposits."

Would she agree with the perception that investing in an equity MF is akin to gambling?

"Not really. It's a question of investor awareness that you need to create for all investors, including women. There is a certain level of disposable income that should be put into equity because on a long-term basis, equity does give you higher returns than debt. But the problem is that most investors come into equity to make a fast buck," she adds.

On what kind of a time horizon or expectation investors should have from equity funds, Jyoti says, "Never come with a short-term horizon... if you look at an equity investor in the West, he has an average holding period of at least three to five years. Most investors have a 10 to 20-year holding period and they get good returns. But, in our country many investors want to double their money in one month. That is how people lose their money... because everybody wants to time the market or to ride a wave and in trying to do so they generally get caught on the wrong foot."

She thinks that almost 80 per cent of the retail equity investors in India belong to this category and puts the onus on the financial advisory community to educate the investors on the dangers of such a phenomenon.

"Actually, we even stop pensioners from putting all their money in equity funds. You do not want the person to lose his money because of a wrong decision. It might be his decision but it is our duty to advise the client if we feel he is taking a wrong decision. How do you expect the investors to know? Obviously, they've been advised by somebody, very few take decisions on their own. So the intermediaries need to be educated and pass on the education."

Asked if AMFI should conduct awareness courses specifically targeted at women, Srividhya says that there are only a few pockets in India where people invest in equity but "it doesn't cover all the potential investors. This is a big lacuna and a lot of effort is required in taking this culture to retailers. Once that happens, women will also get interested and involved. But it would be too much of an effort to target women separately."

When asked if what are normally perceived as female qualities — intuition and greater caution in dealing with money — helped in her success, Jyoti says, "That's a tough one. Of course intuition helps but I don't know if men don't have it. Women probably have stronger intuition and tend to be more careful, but I don't see too much of a huge difference there."

Opportunities, plus stress too

On the kind of opportunities available for women in the investment industry, both women concur that though these are getting better, the profession, with long working hours, can be very demanding as well as stressful. "Most of the finance-related opportunities, be it in banking, insurance or equity, are full-time and demanding jobs. This is a competitive era and the markets are so dynamic that you have to watch them all the time, and you are handling other people's money. In 1994, the visibility of women in the Indian stock markets was not so high, but things have changed. And if you are committed and work hard, you do get results," says Srividhya.

Who should know better than her boss, T.P. Raman, Managing Director of Sundaram Mutual Fund?

Certifying her of having done a "very good job in the two schemes she manages", he points out that Sundaram Select Focus had given a return of 130 per cent since its inception two years ago and 106 per cent in the last one year. He thinks her special strengths are her background in equity research, thorough understanding of the companies she tracks, "as well as her deep understanding of the markets. Select Focus has created a benchmark and given very good returns during the short period of its existence, and the credit goes to her."

Srividhya is married and has children, but Jyoti has found that her vocation hardly provides a level playing field for both men and women when it comes to handling family responsibilities. "The kind of pressures that you have in this line are very high, and it is doubly difficult for a woman because she has to keep proving herself all the time. You are constantly looked upon as somebody who can't measure up or meet the mark."

She thinks that her single status is "probably the reason I am able to manage in this high pressure job. I have remained single because it is very difficult to find a person who would understand the kind of job demands that you have."

She adds that other women too face similar pressures in the industry. "Hence, typically, their life span is limited. You're there in the industry but once your responsibilities increase you tend to move out, and this becomes only one phase of your career."

Women as agents and distributors

Returning to women investing in equity, Srividhya too finds that most women keep away from it because they don't understand that equity can give good returns. "But we do have some agents and distributors who are women," she adds.

One such person is Chennai-based Hemamalini Chandrasekaran, who not only invests in mutual funds but also markets it through her financial consultancy firm called Sai Securities and Consultants. A finance professional, she had worked along with her husband in Dubai till 1995, and when they returned to Chennai they set up their own advisory for clients.

"While advising clients on managing their finance, I thought I should also begin," she says. Unfortunately she set herself a single, huge target of a few lakhs "which never happened as it was impossible to put aside that kind of money."

Next she settled for systematic investment, "which is really the prudent thing to do... in a bank, post office, MF or whatever. But the important thing is to identify a plan, understand it and then start investing."

Her two criteria were safety of capital and decent tax-free returns. "The important thing is to spread the money and the risk. I have a broad idea of how the equity market works, and that a longer horizon gives good gains."

She chose the MF route to equity, having burnt her fingers by investing directly in equity during the technology boom of 2000. Even though she chose frontline companies like Infosys and Wipro, buying the stocks at their peak meant disaster. "Thanks to greed, I lost a lot of money. If we get 25 to 30 per cent returns, we should exit but we think we can double the money," she sighs.

But Hemamalini was smart enough to stick to Infosys and averaged her cost by buying more shares as the price fell. "When the market is down, you should have the guts to go out and buy. I did that and am now in profit. But in 2001, I said thank you very much; I don't want any more risks and walked out of direct investment."

Today she is wizened enough to spread her money in different baskets. While 10 per cent goes to bank deposits, 20 per cent to long-term products such as PPF and insurance, 40 per cent of her money goes into balanced funds and the remaining 30 per cent to equity funds.

She markets and invests in the top performing funds of both Sundaram and HDFC MFs. As for returns, she thinks a good scheme should double your capital in five years.

From home budget to market deals

On the larger issue of women registering their presence and making a mark in the investment industry, Arun Kejriwal of Kris Securities, Mumbai, says the scenario has changed rapidly in the last 20 years. "In those days the few women you saw were children of BSE members and that was it." But the advent of screen-based trading in 1995 changed things drastically and women entered the scene in different capacities — as dealers, traders, arbitrageurs, and the like.

On women fund managers, he says the "ones at the top are good. But there are very few soft corners for them as it is a tough world where competition is extreme. Fund managers are far fewer than analysts and it will take some time before they make a meaningful presence."

He thinks that a woman's experience in managing the household budget and setting aside some money for a rainy day "stands out in investments as they always have that extra rupee when making a bargain hunting."

A surprising feature he identifies in women investors is "their ability to get rid of stocks where they have gone wrong. They have no ego issues like men who tend not to accept their mistake and keep sticking to the wrong choices."

Kejriwal addresses many investor meets and he finds the memory of women investors remarkable. "They remember where they met you, what you wore and what was said. Most dangerously they remember exactly what you said when it comes to investments."

Last March, after one such meeting a woman asked him how much of his own money he had invested. When he said about 85 per cent, she wanted to know why not everything if he was so bullish. "To which I said that one never knew when a good bargain would come along and anyway, as a principle, I never went over 90 per cent."

Three weeks later when the markets moved down she asked again how much he had invested. When the bullish man said he had put in almost 98 per cent of his money, "she promptly wrote back to ask what has happened to your principle?"

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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