Paper Title
An Evaluative Study on Criteria Inducing Retail Investors to Invest in Derivatives Segment

Abstract
The investment avenues for financially literate people have significant push towards investing in the stock market. The stock market seems to be attractive investment area for the people who have financial knowledge about various processes involved in the investment. The role of retail investors is playing a significant part in the working of the stock market and its prices. The retail investors in the stock market opt for returns that work in favour of wealth maximization. The investors have the edge in earning quick returns opting for the futures and options in comparison with cash segment. The derivatives market help to multiply the investment at short period of time based on the volume of the transaction. The study aims to assess the investment criteria of the derivative segment in earning significant returns and various problems involved in investing in the derivative segment. The study is based on the primary data which is collected from the investors making investment in the derivatives segment. The population frame of the study was arrived from the private stock brokers’ data on the derivative traders. The opinions were collected using the structured interview schedule based on the variables identified for the study. The size of the sample was fixed to be 179 based on the population identified for the study. The cochren’s sample size calculator was used for fixing the sampling size with 95 percent confidence interval. The collected opinions of the retail investors were analysed using the percentage analysis and factor analysis for solving the research problems of the study. The findings of the study reveal that the various criteria significantly influencing the investors to invest in the derivative market are Criteria – I – Sound Technical Analysis and High Returns, Criteria – II- Timely Settlement of Returns and Criteria – III- Minimised Risk and Convenience, that induce the investors to invest in the derivative segments are Nominal Investment Higher rate of Returns and Shorter time period. These criteria prove to be significant pull factors for making the retail investors to be attracted towards the derivatives segment which is derived from analyzing the opinions of the stock market investors. Keywords - Derivatives, Futures, Options, Stock Market and Retail Investors