HOW TO LOSE MONEY: 2025 EDITION

For retail investors, the present market calls for balance rather than bravado

- Abhishek Mukherjee

Two men dressed in golden livery stand at the doorway of a hall, blowing trumpets as if announcing the entrance of royalty. A grey-haired, medium-built man saunters in, swaying to the beat of a peppy Bollywood number as the packed hall erupts in cheers.

He dances his way to the front stage, where a giant LED screen flickers with stock tickers and candlestick charts. He grabs the mic and fires off stock tips between sudden, jerky dance moves. A few attendees start swaying in their seats, and before long, half the front row has leapt up to join the gentleman boogying on stage.

Only in India can a stock-trading workshop be almost indistinguishable from a wedding sangeet. And why not? In a country where every moment, from birth to funeral feasts, plays out at full volume, why should the stock market be left out? But the real problem with celebrations is not that they inevitably come to an end, but that someone always has to foot the bill.

Earlier in December, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), India’s market regulator, came down against Avadhut Sathe, the grey-haired, dancing finfluencer mentioned above, and his trading academy. They were accused of running unregistered investment advisory and research operations dressed up as stock market education.

The regulator's interim order stated that through slick advertising, Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy Pvt. Ltd had amassed an enormous ₹601.37 crore from more than 337,000 individuals since 2015. The regulator zeroed in on eight courses offered between January 2020 and October 2025 that accounted for ₹546 crore in collections, and ordered the seizure of this amount.

To check the trading academy’s claims regarding its courses on options trading and other strategies, Sebi obtained the profit and loss data of participants for a period of six months following completion of its most expensive ‘mentorship’ course, for which Sathe charged a hefty fee of ₹6.75 lakh.