When a civil engineer turned ₹18,000 into ₹10 lakh in a single month, it looked like a fairytale. But when the entire profit disappeared in a matter of days, it became a cautionary tale for every aspiring trader.
Setting the Stage
The stock market has a way of seducing professionals from every profession. For some, it is a side hustle; for others, it becomes an escape from the monotony of salaried jobs.
Yash Raval, a 27-year-old civil engineer from Gujarat, is not unique in this respect. His story, however, epitomizes the perilous combination of ambition, limited knowledge, and leverage that has ensnared countless young traders in India’s retail boom.
In the “Losses & Lessons” series, Yash’s candid admissions—about stopping SIPs to fund intraday trades, chasing thrill over patience, and gambling with leverage- paint the picture of a man who mistook luck for skill and action for learning.
What makes his journey particularly instructive is that he experienced almost every stage of retail trading behavior: IPO enthusiasm, SIP discipline, swing trials, intraday addiction, futures, options, and finally, a spectacular run that saw ₹18,000 morph into ₹10 lakh—before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
From Engineer to Experimenter
Yash’s background was modest but steady. He entered the workforce in 2016 with a monthly salary of ₹8,000. Over seven years, his pay package grew to ₹4.6 lakh per annum, a four to five-fold rise that any civil engineer would consider respectable progress.
But stability has its own curse. The slow grind of corporate growth often looks unappealing when contrasted with the fast-moving numbers on a trading terminal.
In 2018, Yash began his financial journey sensibly, with a ₹1,000 SIP. Encouraged by the discipline of saving, he gradually expanded his contributions, often channeling as much as 60% of his modest salary into mutual funds.
For two years, the SIP quietly accumulated. But when curiosity about “active trading” took hold, he cut his SIPs short. The long-term discipline of compounding gave way to the short-term excitement of leveraged speculation.
The IPO Gateway
Like many beginners, Yash’s first taste of the markets came through IPOs. His Bandhan Bank allotment gave him a small listing gain.
He didn’t understand much about market mechanics, but he experienced the intoxicating feeling of money multiplying without effort.
He treated IPOs as a lottery he had somehow cracked. This “easy money” reinforced the idea that markets could deliver life-changing gains with minimal preparation.
The next logical step seemed to be “active” participation. He dipped into swing trades, holding positions for days or weeks, but found the waiting excruciating.
“In two weeks, nothing happened,” he said, echoing the impatience of countless retail traders. Swing trading felt too slow. He wanted the thrill of instant results.
Intraday: The First Hit
Every addiction begins with a first hit. For Yash, it was a trade in TVS Motors. He bought shares at the open, and within minutes, his account showed a profit of ₹1,500 on an investment of just a few thousand.
For someone used to saving ₹1,000 per month in an SIP, earning more than that in three minutes was a revelation.
“This is it,” he thought. “This is what I must do.”
That single profit cemented his belief that intraday trading, turbocharged by leverage, was his destiny. The problem was that he mistook an anomaly for a strategy.
The Leverage Trap
Leverage is both the greatest magnet and the sharpest knife in trading.
Yash openly admits to using 10x, 20x, and even 40x leverage in his trades.
He understood, in theory, that “10% loss at 10x leverage equals 100% capital loss.” Yet he traded anyway, telling himself that one big winning trade would erase all the small losses.
This mentality, “every trade could be the trade,” is catastrophic.
It transforms routine trades into high-stakes gambles. Yash was not trading setups; he was buying lottery tickets with leverage.
And just as inevitably, his account saw its first wipeout: a cumulative ₹1 lakh loss across futures, options, and intraday stock trades.
Gambling with Options
The COVID crash of 2020 coincided with Yash’s foray into options. His “strategy” was brutally simple: every Thursday or Friday, buy the farthest out-of-the-money put and hold until expiry.
Markets were falling, so his puts often ended in profit. He had no understanding of Greeks, premiums, or theta decay. He just knew that if the market fell, his puts doubled or tripled.
It worked, until it didn’t. When the market reversed, his routine collapsed. Without stop-losses or defined exit criteria, he watched his gains evaporate.
His honesty is striking:
“Every trade felt big to me… this is the one that will recover all my losses”
Every trade was imagined as a jackpot ticket, not as one move in a long game.
SIPs Stopped, Savings Lost
The irony of Yash’s journey lies in the opportunity cost. He had demonstrated the discipline to run SIPs for two years, even diverting most of his salary into investments.
Had he continued, those savings would have grown steadily, compounding into meaningful wealth. Instead, he liquidated them to fuel speculative trades.
This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about mindset.
By stopping his SIPs to chase quick trading profits, Yash essentially abandoned a proven wealth-building path for an experimental shortcut. It is the financial equivalent of quitting a salaried job for a lottery stall.
The 18k → 10L Miracle
Then came the miracle run—the kind of story that creates legends in WhatsApp groups. In April 2022, Yash turned ₹18,000 into ₹10 lakh in just one month. For someone who had never seen ₹10 lakh in one place, the experience was surreal.
But instead of withdrawing profits, he increased position sizes. Why stop at ₹10 lakh when ₹1 crore was the next milestone? Within days, the account was back to zero.
This cycle—build fast, lose faster—has destroyed countless retail traders. The problem is not making ₹10 lakh; the problem is believing that the run was skill rather than variance. Without a tested system, profits are temporary guests.
Chasing Certificates, Not Skill
In between his trading adventures, Yash attempted Zerodha’s 60-Day Challenge. Twice he failed. On the third attempt, he gamed the system: withdraw profits midway so the challenge would show him as net positive. He earned the certificate—but not the consistency.
This episode illustrates another retail trader fallacy: chasing external validation rather than internal edge. A certificate on the wall does not protect capital in a volatile market.
The Psychology of “Every Trade Is the One”
Listening to Yash, one recurring theme emerges: the belief that the next trade will solve everything. This is not a technical flaw—it is a psychological compulsion. Traders like Yash don’t lack chart patterns; they lack detachment.
And that is why for a trader or to become a trader, it is important to understand why trading psychology is important.
In professional trading, every trade is just one of thousands in a statistical distribution. For Yash, each trade became personal redemption—a chance to erase past mistakes. That mindset ensured that he never played the long game.
Lessons for Retail Traders
- Leverage without skill is suicide. If you don’t have an edge, 10x leverage multiplies losses, not gains.
- First wins are dangerous. Early success builds false confidence. Treat first profits as warnings, not validations.
- SIPs and discipline matter. Cutting a long-term SIP to fund short-term gambles destroys compounding.
- Every trade is not a jackpot. Thinking “this one trade will change my life” is a gambler’s fallacy.
- Withdraw when you can. If you make windfall profits, take some off the table. Cash in the bank beats numbers on a screen.
- Learning before earning. Technical analysis, risk management, and psychology are not optional—they are prerequisites.
Stock Pathshala’s Relevance
Yash’s story is not just about one man. It reflects a generation of young professionals entering markets armed with YouTube tips and leverage but lacking structured mentorship.
At Stock Pathshala, we meet traders like Yash every day. Civil engineers, IT employees, accountants—all chasing quick wins but ignoring process. Our focus is on three pillars:
- Technical Learning: Understanding setups, risk-reward, and backtesting strategies before risking real money.
- Psychology Training: Breaking compulsive patterns like revenge trading, over-leveraging, and “every trade is the one.”
- Stock Market Mentorship: Real traders guiding learners through live markets, demonstrating discipline in action.
Had Yash paused after his first ₹1 lakh loss to undergo structured training, his SIP discipline could have been combined with technical knowledge. Instead of burning capital, he could have grown it.
Where Yash Stands Now
At the end of his episode, Yash admits he is not consistently profitable. He oscillates between breaks and comebacks, between excitement and disillusionment. He has not blown up family savings, but he has lost years of salary-equivalent capital.
The positive note is his honesty.
Few traders openly admit, “I am not a trader, I was just lucky.”
That clarity, painful as it is, is the first step to change.
Closing Reflection
Yash Raval’s journey is not an outlier—it is the median story of India’s retail trading boom.
From IPOs to intraday, from SIPs to options gambling, from thrill-seeking to miracle runs, his arc captures the hopes and heartbreaks of thousands of young traders.
The biggest tragedy is not the ₹10 lakh he lost; it is the ₹10 lakh he never allowed himself to keep.
The lesson is clear: profits without discipline are hallucinations. Until a trader learns to withdraw, to respect stop-losses, and to treat the market as a marathon rather than a sprint, the story ends the same way.
For those still standing at the edge of this world, Yash’s story should be a mirror. The market is not a lottery stall; it is a profession. And like any profession—be it civil engineering or trading—it demands years of study, mentorship, and practice. Only then does skill replace luck, and only then do profits stay.
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