KOCHI: Reminiscing about the old times when ‘Open Outcry’ system was the method of communication on a stock market floor, Bulls & Bears conducted a mock trading floor session here on Saturday. The mock session was part of their third annual get together in the city. Nostalgia ran high as about 60 veteran stock market professionals mimicked the process of physical trading in which buyers and sellers shout and use hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orders on a trading floor.
Bulls & Bears is a congregation of people from the stockbroking fraternity from the state which primarily consists of members and sub-brokers of the Cochin Stock Exchange (CSE). The CSE was forced to relinquish its operation in 2014 after the new Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regulations made it ineligible to operate in India.
“We aim to create a strong networking platform and further aid in the development of the working professional from the fraternity, who are now spread across the country,” said P Y Narayanan, president, Bulls & Bears. Narayanan added an active WhatsApp group keeps the members informed of the breaking stories related to stock trade and the financial industry in the country, which becomes handy in this profession.
Since the development of the concept of ‘stock exchanges’ in the 17th century, ‘Open Outcry’ system was the main method used to communicate on the trading floor. This changed with the early 20th century witnessing the arrival of phone trading and later electronic trading systems towards the end of it.