"The stock market trading boom has not come to our country yet," - Oleg Shmunis, general director of Instatrade

Oleg Shmunis, CEO of InstaTrade Investment Company (Kaliningrad). 44 years old, has two higher educations: economic and technical. Worked in the banking system for 18 years in various executive positions. For more than three years, he supervised the activities of professional participants in the organized securities market. He was certified in January 2006. FFMS Russia as a specialist with the right to carry out brokerage, dealer activities, securities management activities, and depository activities.

Professional experience: financial consulting, organization management, information technology, internal control systems.
Married, three children. Hobbies: bowling, photography, fishing.

Julia Apel: Our traditional first question for our editorial guests: how did you first get into the stock market and why did you decide to devote your life or a small part of it to it?
Oleg Shmunis: In the distant 2002 in the country began to appear the first after the 1998 crisis, let's call them "sprouts", real capital, and our countrymen were looking for where to multiply funds. Since all employees of the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation signed a commitment at employment that they would not engage in commercial activities without the permission of the bank's management (only teaching was allowed), it remained to place free money in the stock market, in bank deposits, etc.

J.A.: So it was a forced step for you?
O.S.: Yes. Because private commercial activity in your free time was forbidden.

Y.A.: Everyone is accustomed to bank deposits - even the elderly trust their savings to banks. But working at the stock exchange is still in the minds of many people associated either with "playing roulette" or with something incredibly unrealistic. Have you ever had any misgivings about stock trading?
O.S.: My education and experience allowed me to soberly assess the risks in the stock market. Economic theory and practice for hundreds of years showed that recessions are followed by at least a correction. The development of the banking system confirmed expectations of growth in our economy.

J.A.: Do you remember your first deal? Surely emotions overwhelmed you, as they do any newcomer to the stock market.
O.S.: If I'm not mistaken, they were Sberbank RF shares. There was no excitement, as I was operating with sums within 50,000 rubles. At that time my level of responsibility in the bank was more than 2,000 times higher than that money. And the form was investment, not speculative, i.e., I put it in and "watch it grow.

J.A.: How much has your attitude to exchanges changed since then?
O.S.: When I became the Controller of a professional participant in 2005, my feelings sharpened dramatically due to my understanding of the complexity of internal control processes and procedures. You could say that my eyes were opened to many things that, as a client, I did not feel or see.

J.A.: For example?
O.S.: The difference between what they say and write about the prospects of trend direction and balanced approaches to investing has proven to be significant. Profiteers often get carried away in their desire to embellish realities. It is important for the supervisor to prevent brokers from luring clients with such embellished information.

Y.A.: So how does a speculative player act?
O.S.: Many books have been and will be written to answer this question. I will briefly try to answer it as follows.

Y.A.: In your opinion, what is the most common mistake speculators make?
O.S.: Excitement, excitement, excitement. They lose their minds, or rather do not keep them in a cold place.

Y.A.: Oleg, you must also have been susceptible to excitement, what "medicine" saved you?
O.S.: The cure is a sober calculation. In the world of finance, everything counts in advance, including losses. Before the trading session, a thorough analysis should be carried out and strategies for working with instruments defined as working for the next day/period should be chosen. This has to be learned, and we teach it to our clients.

Y.A.: Since we are talking about clients, tell me, does the attitude of traders to trading change over time? Surely you could trace it...
O.S.: Yes, absolutely! Traders They change significantly in terms of psychological preparation, condition. They come as "blind kittens", in three years they become "leopards". They permanently dedicate themselves to stock trading and, over time, are not stingy in revealing their techniques of successful work.

J.A.: If we talk about the trader who came to you 3 years ago and the newcomer of 2010, can you trace the difference between the attitude to the market of each of them?
O.S.: The time continuum has led to an increase in the number of traders using not only Internet trading, but increasingly going into the creation of automated trading systems. In other respects, the newcomer now and three years ago are similar. People don't change, they also purposefully want to lead on financial markets by dialing a broker's phone number or launching a mechanical trading system. The tools to achieve goals change. Exchange trading becomes a rally.

J.A.: Do you think that 10 years from now everything will be the same? After all, the stock exchange is changing, and so are the people.
O.S.: Most likely, due to the development of information technology and the integration of countries, exchange fields will unite at the level of the Internet. There will be approaches similar to those that allow us to work with any pages with a single Internet browser. Software tools for forecasting and trading without direct participation of a trader will be significantly developed. At the same time trust management will gain weight. It will become more difficult for individual traders to earn their bread.

J.A.: Why is this so? After all, you mentioned the development of forecasting tools...
O.S.: Only groups of traders will be able to afford the most powerful funds. Remember the first time a man lost to a computer. It was a supercomputer. Not a cheap model for today's times either.

J.A.: In this case, we should assume that only robots will be able to process a huge amount of information and make only the right decisions as well as a trader... right?
O.S.: It's like a supersonic airplane - it flies fast, but not without human involvement in its careful control. Even on autopilot, the plane is controlled by a controller on the ground. The trader turns from a pedestrian to a super-fast trading process manager. Take at least the history of the trading community from the Great American Depression to the present day. The speeds have become orders of magnitude higher. It is possible that legal and similar restrictions will lead to a brake on process automation, but the future is behind them.

Y.A.: As far as I understand, you have a positive attitude to trade automation?
O.S.: Even though I am an opponent of "microwaves," I understand that the technocratically developing world community cannot resist progress. I am in favor of automation, but that is not the point. We are seeing serious progress in software in our industry. It's just that the tradinig boom hasn't come to our country yet. Everything is ahead of us.

Y.A.: Many people think that the trading boom in Russia is over. When do you plan the peak of popularity?
O.S.: My opinion is not subjective, but based on market research. Out of 150 randomly polled people in Kaliningrad with a population of 450 thousand people, only 2 are working in the market as traders. The popularity will come in the next 5 years. Russians are cautious in their choice of ways to save money.

Y.A.: What would you personally like to see exchanges in the future? Does your company plan anything innovative in trading?
O.S.: Exchanges are as well-established as bookkeeping and will probably change little. However, I expect that the information provision of investors, who would like to get maximum protection for their investments in the long term, will significantly expand. As for the interests of traders, I expect maximum service from the exchanges.
Our company is young and focused on modern trading technologies. In the long term we plan to provide traders with technology that allows them to convert assets between Forex trading floors and stock exchanges, and vice versa, at the "push of a button".

Y.A.: Which market is closer to you personally? stock or currency?
O.S.: I like both markets, but given the specialization of the investment company I manage, I prefer the stock market, where my life takes place most of the time of day.

J.A.: Do you have a preference for certain instruments on your favorite stock market? Which ones do you look at first when looking at the news feeds and the terminal?
O.S.: The majority of clients are focused on instruments with a minimal level of risk relative to other instruments. Our company promotes the Russian stock market, where shares of "blue chips" are the most stable. First of all, we work for the interests of our clients, and they are most often interested in the shares of these giants.

Y.A.: Do you have a preference as a speculator?
O.S.: I have a preference for the same blue chips that are part of the MICEX10. But this is due to the fact that I rarely work as a trader privately. That is the fate of an executive.

Y.A.: What would be your advice to participants of exchanges who are just starting out?
O.S.: I wish new clients to always remember that caution is more important than a momentary chance. Trends are cyclical. This time the trend went up and your order remained, it's okay - next time you will be able to choose the right entry.

Y.A.: Oleg, thank you for the interesting interview. I wish you and your company every success.
O.S.: Thank you for the heartfelt conversation.