Integral Human Development in the Stock Market

    

        There are seven factors that represent material goods in human development. The factors of development are bodily, cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, social, moral, and spiritual.  This issue focuses on how I assess those factors in the workplace. I am a stockbroker and I work in the stock market’s trading floor to perform my job on a daily basis.

    To assess bodily development in my workplace, I could say that I am comfortable with the area in our trading floor. It is fully air-conditioned and we are also provided with the equipment that we need in order to perform our daily tasks and operate for our business.  However, the long hours that we spend on sitting and staring at our computer screens are somehow exhausting. With the fast pace of trading in my nature of work, being there on my terminal could sometimes produce neck and back pain. It could also be exhausting at times that we have to entertain multiple clients in different phone lines. It is a very challenging role, I have enjoyed it for the past 6 years but there are always room for improvement with the way I work and how I could manage to adjust within the changes.

    I am happy with my work but there are times that I always feel that somethings lacking. I could describe it little by little but I can’t put in a bigger picture. Maybe those little things are things that I am not comfortable with. We can’t always have it all, in every job that we could love, there are always imperfections that we encounter along the way.

    Looking at the cognitive development in my workplace I believe that we have been put there to be in full use and to think smart during trading hours. It is not easy to be a stockbroker; it could be intense, stressful and requires a large amount of dedication in order to survive the daily tasks. Cognitive development is about using the abilities that are matched to proportionately challenging work. I could say that the stockbroker’s job requirements fit my character. Being in a fast paced work environment that requires a lot of energy and adrenaline has a stressful impression at first. But when I got used to it, somehow I’ve found my way to fit in and to enjoy my job. I’ve always wanted and exciting job where everything’s new and not in a repetitive routine. The stock market is always different every single day, you have to check what the news is worldwide and do some research to have a sentiment in the market. Every different day that I encounter in the stock market makes my job exciting. I became passionate about my job the longer I’ve put time and experience to it. I have to work smart and take every challenge as lessons throughout my experience as a stockbroker.

   Emotional development is very critical on my part. As a stockbroker, being emotional is our primary enemy. Not only we get emotional through volatile prices of the market, we are also responsible in explaining through our clients the best way that we can. It’s always a very exciting pace throughout a trading day and of course people get ecstatic when prices appreciate. On the other hand, there’s always a downside risk towards every investment or stock pick. That’s why internal conflict kicks in when prices turn sour. This leads to depression, anger, disappointment and disinterest towards the stock market that affects our jobs and relationship towards clients badly. As a stockbroker, we should be efficient and consistent that we need to perform like robots or machines. We shouldn’t be easily distracted by wild movements of the stock market or mood swings of the client. We should always be at our full potential where it is better if we feel less or feel nothing at all. Pure calculations, pure adrenalines rush and rapid trade executions are the only way to survive a trading day.

   Aesthetic development is one factor that is not really related to my nature of work. I can’t describe how stocks could be designed or manufactured for beauty. I guess it’s just the valuation or the fundamentals of a stock where investors could be interested into. Our researchers do their best to market those stocks that they believe has great value as of the present time and trend.

     Social development plays a large role in my nature of work. It is part of our daily task to talk with clients over the phone or face to face at times. We also have to communicate through other brokers and its representative to do our business. We play a vital role of building our network in order to be exposed to different clients and institutions that is necessary so we could expand our volume and earn more.  It is always difficult for me to build trust and comfort whenever I deal with other parties. It is something I still need to develop in my workplace. I could say that there’s a lot of room for improvement for me in terms of communicating where I could be quickly and easily be understood. In my nature of work we value time so much that it is necessary to make short conversations all the time. I think that I should develop more on how to make short conversations smart and effective.

   Moral development is very important on being a trading participant or a stockbroker. We should always be compliant with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). There are a lot of ethical issues in trading in the stock market worldwide. Here in our country, there were crimes committed that is equal to robbery or theft that wasn’t being penalized in the past. The most common are fraudulent transactions like insider trading, market manipulation or wash sales. Those weren’t recognized and there wasn’t anyone who has been put to jail by committing those violations unlike in other countries where brokers and investors were monitored thoroughly by the SEC. In this present time, SEC together with PSE have found solutions in order to be more transparent, one big factor of this transparency are technology and expansion of market education. In today’s market in the PSE, I could say that they have improved a lot in terms of being transparent. Recently, there are brokers and investors that was suspended and penalized because of breach in market regulations or violating the market rules.

    Spiritual development in our workplace seems to be lacking. There is only one mass that we have every month which is held on first Friday of the month. During the opening of the market we only play the national anthem and we proceed to trading without prayers until the market closes. There is only a prayer before the market opens if it is an IPO or Initial Public Offering. It means that a private company will be listed on the stock market which only happens with an average of 5 times per year since I’ve worked in the stock market. There is very little and almost no religious activity that is done inside the market. I have noticed that individuals just practice their religious activities before or after work. I believe that faith depends upon those who are devoted with God. So whether they are inside or outside the job, God is always with them if they have faith. It will surely help and guide everyone whatever duties they have throughout the day if they carry God along with them.