‘Hedge-style’
The fastest-growing sector in India is derivatives. There is an approximate 500 per cent increase happening every few months. People are flocking to this field, and as more people enter, the losses are only increasing because newcomers are not aware of what needs to be done.
“I think there has to be a strong way to control this. We wanted to be pioneers in this field, helping the small investor who is losing money because they are new and lack know-how,” says Rahul Ghose, the founder and CeO of Octanom (which in Spanish and Greek means eight ways to make money while you sleep). Octanom Tech Pvt Ltd (OTPL) is an options trading and hedging specialist with 44 employees.
With nearly two decades of deep financial market experience, Ghose’s investech firm, started in February 2023 for retail traders in India, has spearheaded the development of Hedged, India’s first ‘hedge-style’ investment platform. “I am hellbent on reducing India’s investment losses and revolutionising its trading landscape,” explains the 35-year-old Ghose, who combines his expertise in finance with technological innovation to empower individuals to make informed investment decisions.
Ghose pioneered Octanom, building ‘Hedged.in’ to help redefine the investment and trading landscape across the country. “With just 3.5 per cent of Indians directly investing in stocks, Hedged emerges as the solution, offering lower-risk, machine-driven hedged recommendations and innovative investment solutions that empower investors to make informed decisions and combat fear stemming from a lack of knowledge, time constraints, and market unpredictability,” says Ghose. His proprietary AI-driven platform and robust algorithms offer retail investors unparalleled insights into options trading that help safeguard against market volatility and enable strategic portfolio positioning without intermediaries.
Hedged is equipped with innovative tools like the nifty Crash Meter for market predictions, Live Funds for volatility protection for one’s investments, and Hedged TV for comprehensive education. “Hedged helps investors with risk mitigation and strengthens their confidence in building wealth in the long term. In just 12 months, the platform has grown to have the highest audited success rate among all similar
competitor platforms in India,” adds Ghose, formerly country head of MoneyFlix and VP of Sharekhan.com. His tenure in upper management provided invaluable insights into customer pain points and market dynamics. Recognising the prevailing fear of loss among investors, he embarked on an entrepreneurial path to address this challenge.
Genesis of trading
It is interesting to hear Ghose’s journey. “Our neighbour in Chennai used to be this gentleman who never went to work, but he drove a very fancy Tudor red-coloured car. I asked my dad about him. He never went to the office, yet he had a big house and a fancy red car. My dad told me that all he did was trading. Somehow that caught my attention, triggering my interest. So, my parents funded me a little bit, but I kept losing for a couple of years. I think my parents must have funded me at least R50 lakh over 4-5 years,” says a candid Ghose, who studied engineering. His dad ran a business where he restored vintage cars and had a small real estate business.
After completing his engineering in 2009, Ghose got a campus placement at TCS. “I quit in 11 months and got an internship job at a family office to help their team with their investments. After that, I joined Sharekhan in 2013 as a senior analyst on the technical side,” points out Ghose, who spent nine years there. “I jumped up about 12-13 roles in nine years to the second position. Big salary. My parents were very unhappy when I quit. They said: ‘Why do you want to do business?” he adds.
Realising there were three problems that nobody was addressing in financial markets, Ghose identified that every single financial investment instrument, be it PMS, mutual funds, stocks or eTFs, has one problem: they are all long-only. “This means markets have to go up for you to make money in any of these instruments. And what happens as a result? When markets have a bad year, like during Covid, retail investors get scared and pull out their money. This was one problem I wanted to solve. Second, SeBI says that 90 per cent of people lose money in trading. There are 26 platforms in India today that try to provide information. But there is no platform in India to help people who are losing money. I wanted to be that platform. If people are losing money, they can turn to somebody. We audit our own results. This means whatever results come up on my platform, a third-party company audits them, ensuring low risk.” He advocates a responsible way of trading and investing where risk should be low.
“In the last 14 months, we have had 35,000 people on the platform. Our biggest talking and selling point to date is that people love the low-risk approach because they can sleep peacefully at night. What investors thought was the biggest problem is our biggest strength,” adds Ghose.
Funding the venture
“I have observed that market volatility has often been a challenge when it comes to investments, especially among retail traders. So, we saw a need in the market and joined hands and minds to seek solutions to bridge this gap,” observes Praveen dwarkanath, Head of Algorithms and Operations at OTPL.
“Technology has crept into every nook and cranny of our lives and will continue to play a pivotal role in changing the financial markets landscape as well. OTPL explores this to the fullest by leveraging AI and technology to provide safer and more reliable trading and investing methods to investors across India. With respect to financial technology, Ghose has been a beacon. The industry has greatly benefited from his innovative approach to options trading and hedging,” points out Shivkumar Puppala, CTO at OTPL.
Ghose put in R1.5 crore, and the company has raised R10 crore upto now. The founding members of Sharekhan, like Shankar, the CTO at the time, and Ketan Parikh, both funded as pre-seed capital. Additionally, more than eight CeOs and family offices have funded the company.
Ketan Parekh, ex-CTO of Sharekhan, says: “Ghose is a trailblazer in the financial markets space. His deep expertise in options trading and hedging, combined with his innovative approach, is impacting the industry. As the founder, he has been instrumental in developing Hedged, which is transforming the trading landscape for retail investors who are constantly plagued by losses. Having worked with him during his tenure at Sharekhan.com, I have seen first-hand his dedication to addressing investor challenges and his passion for reducing investment losses.”
Shankar Vailaya, ex-COO of Sharekhan, adds: “Ghose is a visionary in the financial technology industry and has greatly influenced the sector. His dedication to reducing investment losses and leveraging technology to empower investors is truly commendable. His leadership is driving advancements in the investech space.”
Currently, the company has a 3.5 times marketing-to-revenue ratio. “Which is unheard of for a startup,” says Ghose, planning to launch two other platforms by the end of this year. These are called Greein and eLRS (equity Loss Reduction System). Greein is going to be India’s first alternative to trading views and a platform that empowers retail traders and investors with the most sophisticated technology to trade in Indian markets.
eLRS is an AI-based loss reduction engine. “Octanom is the first in the world to make it. It reduces the loss of existing positions of participants. The Octanom team always wondered why there is no service or product that helps people when they are losing money, and thus came the birth of eLRS,” sums up Ghose, hoping to reach the R100 crore revenue mark by Fy28. deeply passionate about investment technology, Ghose aims to save $1 billion in investment losses over the next decade. u