Have you ever been convinced that you too could become a millionaire? I have been in your shoes. In today’s world, we are heavily influenced by social media, where a person is chilling on a vacation with their laptop and their trading setup on. We also think we can quit our jobs, do this, and retire soon.
That’s how I got pulled in too. A long term family friend, who is a little older than me, suggested that I should also join him in trading, adding that he made huge profits. For someone inspired by these socials who didn’t know where to start, this felt like an opportunity.
He showed me how trading works by teaching me the nuances of futures and options. I made profits, and I was very happy. That’s what happens to many traders — they will unfortunately make profits initially. Motivated by these profits, I started working day and night, learning and practising. I lost my sleep and slowly became somebody who is tired all the time.
About the author: Hariharan is a SEBI-registered investment adviser and a member of Fee-only India, a group of fixed-fee-only SEBI-registered advisors. He can be contacted via his website hariharanwealthadvisory
I stopped my teaching completely and got involved with trading. Because it was demanding, I had to learn a lot. I started doing it full-time, which made it hard for people around me. I felt I had no choice but to be successful at trading. This is quite a bad mindset which started breaking me from inside.
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I was preparing for my CA exams at that time. I had saved ₹65,000 — money I had set aside specifically to support myself during the period when I would not be working full time. That money was gone. Worse than the money was the time — the hours I should have spent studying were going into charts, trades and market updates.
The person who got me into trading was also going through his own battles. He was slowly fighting battles that nobody knew about. He incurred losses for 3 to 4 years and took loans to cover them. He hid these details from everybody and thought that he would eventually become a millionaire. He started lying; he suddenly disappeared and came back after a few weeks, handling all the debts in this time, it seems.
It cost him loans, peace, lies and eventually his marriage. This was a good sign for me to stop. I told myself — if you are any smart, you should stop now. The person who once inspired me to start trading was now the reason I decided to stop.
I had already studied many personal finance books. But now it became a thirst, and reading them again was a big relief. Books like The Psychology of Money, The Intelligent Investor, Let’s Talk Money, and One Up on Wall Street helped me realise that daily market watching was not necessary. Peace came in instantly. I started explaining inflation to people, how goal-based investing needs to be handled systematically, and its importance. People loved it and felt motivated.
SEBI data shows that 93% of individual F&O traders incurred losses between FY22 and FY24. Aggregate losses exceeded ₹1.8 lakh crore over three years. What is even more telling — over 75% of traders who lost money continued trading despite incurring losses in two consecutive years. We are fighting with big algorithms and big institutions. Trading works for a few. But most people reading this are not in that small minority. People want to believe the opposite, but it is rarely true.
If you are reading this and you are already trading, I am not asking you to stop. I am only asking you to be honest with yourself about what it is costing you — your time, your sleep, your peace, your relationships.
Let me give you a simple number to think about. If you had invested ₹10,000 every month starting at age 25 for 30 years at 12% returns, you would have ₹3.08 crore. If you waited just 5 years and started at 30, the number would drop to ₹1.70 crore. Those 5 years did not just cost you trading losses. They cost you ₹1.38 crore in compounding that never happened.
Most of the time, it is the boring, mechanical, systematic investments that will build your wealth in the long term. Not the shortcuts. Not the shining objects that everybody is chasing on social media. Trading gave me screen time, stress and ego. Investing gave me clarity, peace and a plan.
Many people think they have a plan because they have a few SIPs running. That is not a plan. A plan connects your money to your actual life goals — your child’s education, your retirement, your financial independence. Without that connection, even the best portfolio will not take you where you want to go. So ask yourself honestly — do you have a plan, or just a portfolio?
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Dr M. Pattabiraman (PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over 14 years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development. Connect with him via Twitter(X), LinkedIn, or YouTube.
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