Beers with the neighbors.

On a warmish Friday evening, I am invited to drink beer with a couple of neighbors. As we talk and sip, I tell those I haven’t met that I am a financial economist, teach at IIM-B. Then you must know about equities, says one.  (Flashback to my neighbors in California who would ask me investing questions each time they saw me outside the house setting out the trash.) I say tentatively, I am just beginning to learn about Indian markets. As alcohol loosens the tongue, one talks about their winners, another brags about 30% in a week. Trade options, Badri asks a third, one, I say, not yet, the volume and liquidity scare me, and the index options market is dominated by the big institutional players. I want to ask their wives if they know what the menfolk are doing. I pose this question to the men during a quiet lull as we all take big pulls at our beer mugs. A guilty silence gives me my answer!