How to Monitor Client Portfolios as a SEBI Research Analyst
Twenty clients. Fifteen stocks each. That is 300 stock-client combinations to watch. A single BSE board meeting outcome can affect eight of those clients in different ways, depending on how much each one holds. Most Research Analysts either miss the event entirely or send the same generic note to everyone. Neither is good enough.
The problem with 300 combinations
A typical solo RA with 20 active clients, each holding 15 different stocks, faces 300 stock-client pairs to monitor. NSE and BSE publish between 300 and 800 corporate filings on a normal trading day. Filtering that to the 10-20 that actually matter across 300 pairs is not a spreadsheet job.
The problem compounds at quarter-end. Earnings season runs for roughly 6 weeks from mid-April and mid-October. During that window, 20-30 major results drop per day. An RA with clients in FMCG, IT, and pharma needs to triage them fast, flag the ones that affect clients, and send a note within hours, not days.
What happens without a system
- Client hears about a material filing from a news app, not from you
- You send the same note to all 20 clients regardless of whether they hold the stock
- No record of what you sent, when, and to whom (Regulation 25 violation)
- Clients who hold large positions in affected stocks feel under-served
The manual approach and its limits
Most independent RAs start with an Excel sheet. One tab per client. Columns for ticker, exchange, approximate quantity, and entry price. It works for 5 clients. By 15 clients, the maintenance burden is real. By 30, it breaks.
The structural problem with Excel is that it has no live connection to NSE or BSE data. When a filing drops at 2:15 PM, you have to manually check NSE's announcements page, cross-reference against your sheet, and draft a note. That process takes 20-40 minutes per filing. At three material filings per day across your universe, that is 60-120 minutes of manual work, every day.
A second problem: Excel gives you no delivery log. You can copy a note and paste it into WhatsApp, but there is no record of exactly what you sent, to which client, at what time. Under Regulation 25, that log is not optional.
The systematic approach: a symbol-to-client map
The core data structure that fixes this is a symbol-to-client map. Instead of organizing by client (client A holds X, Y, Z), you invert it: for each ticker, which clients hold it?
With this structure, when a RELIANCE filing drops, you immediately know it affects clients C001, C007, and C014. You send a targeted note to those three only. Client C003 (who holds only INFY) gets nothing, which is correct. Their inbox stays clean.
How to build it yourself
You need three components: a symbol-to-client map (a Google Sheet works), a filing feed (NSE/BSE RSS or a data provider), and a delivery mechanism.
Maintain the symbol-to-client map
A Google Sheet with columns: Ticker, Client ID, Client Name, WhatsApp/Telegram handle, Approximate quantity. Update it when a client adds or exits a position. Review it monthly.
Subscribe to a BSE/NSE filing feed
BSE provides an RSS feed of corporate filings. NSE NEAPS publishes announcements within minutes of filing. Poll these feeds every 5-10 minutes using a simple script or service.
Match filings to clients
When a filing arrives for ticker X, look up X in your symbol-to-client map. The matching clients are your target audience for this note.
Send and log
Send the note via WhatsApp, Telegram, or email to the matched clients. Write the send event to a log: ticker, filing type, client IDs, timestamp, message text. This is your Regulation 25 record.
What Aktai's filings dashboard does
Aktai automates the entire pipeline above. You add your client portfolios once. Aktai ingests the NSE and BSE filing feeds in real time (typically within 90 seconds of publication). The dashboard shows each incoming filing with a count of affected clients: "RELIANCE board outcome: 3 clients affected."
You review the filing, write a short note, and hit send. Aktai delivers it to the affected clients only, via their preferred channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, email, or Discord). The delivery is logged automatically: ticker, client, channel, timestamp, and full message text retained for 5 years.
What this looks like in practice
BSE Filing ยท RELIANCE ยท 14:32 IST Board meeting outcome: โน9,300 Cr buyback approved 3 clients affected: C001 (200 shares), C007 (50), C014 (500) [Write note] [Send to affected clients] [Dismiss]
The SEBI angle: know-your-client and conflicts
Tracking client holdings is not just operationally useful. It has a compliance dimension. SEBI's conflict-of-interest rules (Regulation 16) require you to disclose when you or your associates hold a security you are recommending. To make that disclosure accurately, you need to know your own holdings.
Client holdings data also helps with concentration risk. If 12 of your 20 clients hold the same mid-cap stock, a negative event affects 60% of your client base simultaneously. Knowing this in advance lets you prepare a coordinated, considered response rather than scrambling.
Finally, knowing which clients hold which stocks is part of what SEBI calls suitability. A research note recommending more buying of a stock that a client already holds at 25% of their portfolio is different from the same note sent to a client with zero exposure. Context-aware delivery is better research practice.
FAQ
How many clients can a SEBI Research Analyst manage?
SEBI does not set a hard cap on the number of clients a Research Analyst can serve. However, individual RAs are subject to the annual fee cap (โน1,25,000 per client) and must maintain adequate records and disclosure for each client. In practice, solo RAs typically manage 10-50 active clients before operational capacity becomes a constraint.
Do I need to track my clients' holdings as a SEBI Research Analyst?
SEBI does not require RAs to maintain a live portfolio of client holdings. However, conflict-of-interest rules under Regulation 16 mean you must know whether you or your associates hold a stock before recommending it. Many RAs also track client holdings voluntarily to send relevant, targeted research, rather than broadcasting generic notes to all clients.
What is a Research Analyst's duty to clients under SEBI?
Under the SEBI Research Analyst Regulations 2014, an RA must act in the best interest of clients, disclose all conflicts of interest, not guarantee returns, maintain records of all research and recommendations, and ensure research is based on reasonable grounds. The RA must also have a written client agreement and a client grievance mechanism.
How do I track BSE filings across multiple client portfolios?
The most scalable approach is to maintain a symbol-to-client mapping: for each NSE/BSE ticker, record which clients hold it. When a corporate filing comes in for that ticker, the affected clients are identified instantly. Aktai automates this: it joins your client portfolio map to incoming BSE announcements and shows you which clients are affected by each filing, with one-click delivery to those clients.
What is the best way to manage clients as a SEBI Research Analyst?
The most effective RAs maintain a symbol-to-client map, monitor BSE and NSE filings by symbol, and push relevant events only to affected clients, not all clients. This reduces noise for clients and positions the RA as a high-signal source. Software purpose-built for RAs (like Aktai) automates the join between filing feeds and client portfolios, reducing manual work to near zero.