“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
These words by Andy Warhol reflect upon the fact that you solely bear the strength to be the creator of your destiny. It definitely wasn’t easy for Rohit Chugh for whom life had other plans.
Rohit’s story is of persistence, never giving up, upskilling and growing. He worked hard, became an entrepreneur, achieved his vision of establishing his own manufacturing company, but circumstances changed, and he quickly adapted for the future.
Here’s our conversation with Rohit:
Hi Rohit, can you tell us something about yourself?
Hi, I’m Rohit Chugh. I completed my Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Finance from Mumbai. I did my internship at a security printing firm in Mumbai as I always wanted to be in the printing field.
I was also thinking of pursuing my Master's degree. In 2010, 6 months after my degree, I moved to the UK to pursue my postgrad MBA. In 2011, I returned to Mumbai and started working on developing a new business.
Can you share more about your career with us?
I started off my business initially by getting clients, setting up my full-fledged manufacturing unit, certification, etc. But, events like demonetization affected the playing card industry, and the launch of Reliance Jio impacted our printed prepaid recharge vouchers business, pan India.
We lost clients, had to resort to layoffs and lost business. We were making losses by the end of 2017 and eventually ceased operations in Feb. 2018.
When and how did you begin trading?
It was during this rough period of 6 months when I started looking for new opportunities to earn money. I was always open to any field and was looking for jobs but did not get satisfactory job roles. That's when I realised trading as an income generator than wealth.
The Capital market really attracted me. I started day trading with a limited resource of INR 1 lakh, trying to generate profits on percentage, to see if I could really make anything and to see how well I could perform.
During this time I was only trying to generate profits on percentage. Within months my equity curve was negative and I realised I don’t have the right skills to trade as I'm picking up wrong trades or staying in too long.
Tell us about your learning experience in Trading.
I researched online and started learning and developing skills. I started to attend each and every free seminar and watching a lot of videos on YouTube that would help me develop my skills to earn decent profits. But it still wasn’t helping me. That’s when I decided that I was only going to focus on finding a secured job as a business developer with my MBA degree.
As I was looking for jobs I just happened to search highest and latest job roles where I came across with data analyst that’s when I saw few job openings as a data analyst in the capital market. I had by then decided in which field I wanted to work in.
When did you decide to learn algorithmic trading and what motivated you to do so?
I had no skill for that and I knew I had to do some specialised course that will also help me secure a job after completion. This is when I came across QuantInsti and learnt that it is the only institute in India which has a course specialised in algorithmic trading and offers lifetime job support. I started researching about the institute and decided to enrol my self for EPAT.
I discovered myself at QuantInsti and I got to be a part of memorable experiences and one-of-a-kind opportunities that I don't think I would have found anywhere else. I thank QuantInsti for shaping me into the person I am today and for giving me professors that truly cared about my success and didn't see me as a number, and lifelong mentors who I know I could always go to at any point in my career.
How has certification impacted your trading outputs and profits? Can you share some stats in terms of percentages?
Through QuantInsti I was able to get an internship as a strategy developer in a fin-tech company and now continuing as full time. Here I’m coding and backtesting different strategies and I have not yet deployed any money by Algo trading as I’m still in the developmental phase.
Thank you for opening doors to so many opportunities and thank you for setting me up for success.
We’re proud of your success, Rohit. We admire your courage and wish you continued success.
Unleash your aspirations to learn about Algorithmic Trading, keep moving, learning, growing, and never give up. Equip yourself with the necessary skillset and knowledge required to excel in this field. Let our Executive Programme in Algorithmic Trading (EPAT) be your guide. Learn more about it here.
Disclaimer: In order to assist individuals who are considering pursuing a career in algorithmic and quantitative trading, this case study has been collated based on the personal experiences of a student or alumni from QuantInsti’s EPAT® programme. Case studies are for illustrative purposes only and are not meant to be used for investment purposes. The results achieved post completion of the EPAT® programme may not be uniform for all individuals.
