Tr(e)ading with caution

Three friends went to college together, became software engineers, went to Silicon Valley, got cushy jobs and, after a few years, decided to become entrepreneurs. Sounds like a run-of-the-mill story? But this is where Tushar Makhija’s story takes a serious turn. It’s common to hear of entrepreneurs struggling to get that one big idea to start a business, but for Makhija and his two other friends, it was simply about taking inspiration from several popular online portals and creating a unique one of their own.

While he was still in the US, Makhija started a portal called www.stockezy.com that allowed users to gain information on trading stocks and where to park their money. In a nutshell, it’s a portal for people who want to try their hand in the stock market but lack the expertise.

Makhija says that the idea came to him while he himself started out as a novice investor on the Wall Street. “We started a Google group which included friends and family and used to discuss investment options,” he recalls. But that was in 2007. Realising a business opportunity, Makhija promptly launched a webpage called stockezy.com, but it was only in August 2008, stockezy.com went online in a big way. Today, it has over 6,000 registered members.

The site has features like stock picks (which was inspired by www.stockpicks.com) that has users recommending people about what to buy and what to sell. There are sections where users can post informative articles and videos about stock markets (again inspired by www.digg.com). Every member on the site has an accuracy meter to check how good he is with predicting stock trends.

The portal’s biggest draw is its association with the IIM (Lucknow)-based Credence Capital, which manages one of the largest student funds in India. Credence Capital answers finance and investment-related queries of novice investors on stockezy.com, and also provides weekly and fortnightly newsletters detailing market insights and trading strategies to the community.

As of now, membership is free and the only revenue coming in is from Google advertisers. However, stockezy.com is gearing up to launch “Stock Market Warriors”, a B-school students’ stock-picking and derivatives competition, and has already roped in big sponsors for it.

The portal is ready to launch another feature called “Community Gurus” that will bring in stock market experts to advise the investor. There will be three packages available for investors for one month, three months and sixmonths, costing between Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000. “We will be sharing the revenue thus earned with the Market experts too,” says Makhija, who is confident that with social media’s potential just being tapped in the country, it is the right time for stockezy.com to go into an overdrive.