Fifteen years down the line, Mukta Dhamankar, the middle-aged mother of two, has been hitting successful home runs with her disciplined, tolerant and diligent trading acumens and investment decisions. A qualified nutritionist and former research assistant at UNICEF acted on her instincts after literally ‘sailing’ through eight years of marriage with her husband who is a Navy officer.

During the initial days of her marriage, Dhamankar accompanied her husband in exploring the world. Things changed after she became a mother. Dhamankar decided to become an entrepreneur, and it was her motherhood period and qualification that pushed her to start a company of baby food products.

However, after running the operation for three years, she found her true calling. An avid reader of business dailies, she then dived into the tumultuous world of stock trading.

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“I felt a need to learn all these concepts, and also I thought it would be the best thing to do as I don’t have to travel and can be home, taking care of my family, and see my children grow in my care,” says Dhamankar.

However, she vaguely knew about the stock market. “My father used to occasionally invest in blue-chip stocks, but to become a full-fledged trader was a whole new experience,” says Dhamankar.

“When my kids go to school, I utilise those 5-6 hours in trading and the nights are for research. I take out at least 40 minutes, after my kids fall asleep, to read global and Indian economic affairs and corporate news to remain up to speed”.

She also acknowledges the emotional support and faith that her in-laws and husband continue to have in her.

Sharing her early experience in trading, Dhamankar says that it took at least a year or two to gather a full synopsis of the stock market. “I had set a very small goal initially for me as this was new for me and my family. And making a regular income from trading was also new to us. So, I was not ready to take a risk with any big amount. I began trading with small targets like ₹2,000 to ₹3,000. In the beginning, if I made ₹5,000 in a day, I used to shut the terminal”.

Right now, Dhamankar says she is able to make an decent profit on her capital.

According to her, learning concepts from the internet and implementing them in a live market are two different things. “Managing your emotions and actively trading in the market is a task. Every investor has its ups and downs, but I have never experienced sleepless nights over a bad day in the ring.”

She advises that patience and discipline are certainly two major factors one should have in order to enter the stock market.

Dhamankar is not just totally immersed in the trading, she also believes in expanding her wealth by investing in mutual funds via Systematic Investment Planning (SIPs), government bonds, properties, gold trading, and government schemes like National Pension Scheme (NPS). Additionally, she picks stocks for long-term investment by comparing the relative strength of both scrips and sectors.

“In every sector, there will be an outperformer and under-performer. An outperformer will rise when Index is rising and an underperformer will perform well when Index is falling. You have to be in the right scrip at the right time,” adds Mukta Dhamankar who managed to take her family on a self-funded vacation to South Africa in 2019.

Dhamankar is imparting her decade-long experience in the stock market to her children now. “In India, financial literacy is very limited. Hence, I chose to educate them in my own way. I have taught them about the derivative segment, commodities. My kids are also inquisitive. Whenever I am trading, they try to sit by me and learn about candlesticks, moving averages, point and figure charts, and so on,” says the proud mother of two.

Moreover, she also plans to share her expertise in the stock market with those willing to learn. “If people are genuinely interested in learning, I would love to teach them. One needs to have patience and discipline to learn these concepts. I can help people learn the stock market in Marathi, Hindi, and English.” adds Dhamankar.

“The journey to understand the stock market was a gradual process. I had too many irons in the fire, raising my kids and taking care of my family on one hand, and managing the bull and bear on the other. However, I am yet to find the perfect balance, but somehow I have successfully managed to navigate my ship through for all these years,” quips Dhamankar as she gets ready to tread the recent topsy-turvy run of the stock market.