Corporate Manager
The highest user level on a trading firm's F&O terminal — the only user who can set branch exposure limits and see every branch and dealer's orders, trades and reports.
In plain language
A trading firm's F&O software does not give everyone the same access. It ranks users in a hierarchy, and the corporate manager sits at the top.
A corporate manager can do everything: place and view orders and trades for every branch and every dealer in the firm, and pull reports across all of them. One power belongs to the corporate manager alone — setting exposure limits for the firm's branches. Nobody below this level can do that.
How it works
Chapter 6, section 6.1, sets out three user levels on the trading system, top to bottom:
| Level | Can see and do |
|---|---|
| Corporate Manager | Order and trade activity for all branches and all dealers; receives reports across the firm; the only level that can set branch exposure limits |
| Branch Manager | Order and trade activity for all dealers under that branch only |
| Dealer | Only their own orders and trades — no visibility into other dealers, same branch or otherwise |
The hierarchy is about internal visibility and control, not about who is legally certified to trade — that separate qualification is the approved user requirement.
A worked example
Suresh Broking Ltd runs three branches: Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, each with several dealers.
As corporate manager, the firm's head office user can view every order placed by every dealer across all three branches, and can set a lower exposure limit for the Nagpur branch after a dealer there breaches risk limits. The Pune branch manager, by contrast, can see and manage only the Pune dealers' activity — not Mumbai's or Nagpur's. A dealer in Pune sees only their own orders, not even those of the colleague at the next desk.
The corporate manager's authority over exposure limits is separate from another Chapter 8 rule on the same terminal: before any Pune dealer can trade at all, Suresh Broking must have appointed at least 2 approved users who have cleared the SEBI-approved certification — a headcount rule the corporate manager does not set and cannot waive.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 6, section 6.1 (User hierarchy in the trading system), sets out corporate manager, branch manager and dealer as the three levels. Expect a question asking which level alone can set branch exposure limits, or ranking the three by scope of visibility.
Common exam traps
- Only the corporate manager can define branch exposure limits — this is the one power the workbook singles out as exclusive to that level.
- Dealers cannot see other dealers' orders even within their own branch — visibility is strictly per-dealer at that level, not shared branch-wide.
- This hierarchy is a firm's internal terminal-access structure, not a SEBI membership category — do not confuse it with clearing member or trading member types.
Check yourself
1.In the futures and options trading software, which user level can define exposure limits for the branches of the trading member firm?
- a)The Dealer
- b)The Branch Manager
- c)The Corporate Manager only
- d)Any of the three levels, as authorised by the exchange
Show the answer
Answer: (c) The Corporate Manager only
The hierarchy has exactly three levels — Corporate Manager, Branch Manager and Dealer — and the workbook is explicit that the Corporate Manager can also define exposure limits for the branches of the firm, adding that this facility is available only to the Corporate Manager.
The Branch Manager sits under the Corporate Manager and can perform and view order and trade related activities for all dealers under that branch — but not set limits.
The Dealer is at the lowest level and can only view his own orders and trades, with no access to information on other dealers in the same branch or any other branch.
Option D is the kind of vague "as authorised" answer that is almost always wrong in this chapter — the workbook assigns this power to exactly one level and says so twice.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series VIIIRelated terms
- Approved userAn individual, certified under a SEBI-approved programme, whom a trading member appoints to operate its derivatives trading terminal — the only person actually allowed to key in orders on it.
- Trading memberA member of a stock exchange who trades on behalf of clients or on his own account, under a trading member ID shared by all his registered users — and who must clear through a clearing member.