Mom And Pop Traders Throng Dalal Street, Enticed By Screenshots Of Massive Earnings Of Other Traders

I made Rs. 77 lakh today. How much you made?

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Dalal Street’s culture is the long-standing practice of traders showing screenshots of their EOD earnings.

Asit Baran Pati, a seasoned F&O trader, evoked cheers from his fans when he disclosed that he had effortlessly raked in a fortune of Rs. 77 lakh on the historic day when NAMO unveiled the reforms.

previous one of 35l..includes one Odin A/c..Saw 94l, greed of 1cr did me in..paid the price of breaking my own rule..Last but not the least a big thanks to our beloved PM ModiJi, ModiJi hey toh mumkin hey..

— Asit Baran Pati (@asitbaran) May 13, 2020

The earnings gushed in from a relatively modest capital of Rs. 1.2 crore.

Around 1.2 cr

— Asit Baran Pati (@asitbaran) May 13, 2020

It appears the gains were realized from a sophisticated technique known as “Gamma Scalping“.

Other traders show similarly massive earnings from F&O trades.

One trader raked in Rs. 11.82 lakh from “pure intraday trading” on a capital of only Rs. 20 lakh.

Small Profits of Rs11,82,000!
1. PURE INTRADAY & NO Positional
2. Capital 20lakhs
3. NON EXPIRY DAY
4. Both Index & Stocks
5. Both Profit & Loss
6. Check my name & broker details.
To #UNCLE & all my critics a special song dedicationhttps://t.co/UiRuMjfk4m
RETWEET & COMMENT must! pic.twitter.com/QajiWa03Pf

— CA.Rudramurthy BV (@iamrudramurthy) May 8, 2020

Another trader, who describes himself as “Banknifty Addict“, claimed to have made profit of a couple of lakh “just to satisfy my ego“.

Made Profit just to satisfy my ego.
Else boring expiry. Not played even with 1x leverage.

Hope all option sellers have made profit today. pic.twitter.com/9Jm3cnFRMU

— Banknifty Addict (Gaurav) (@BankniftyA) May 7, 2020

Yet another trader claimed that even his wife has mastered the art of trading and is raking in mega bucks.

“Looks soon I might take the kitchen,” he joked.

Mind blowing.. Looks soon I might take the kitchen ?? https://t.co/VZ1Rek4RGC pic.twitter.com/Zcfqy3BMYs

— jay (@niftywizard) May 18, 2020

Mom n’ Pop make beeline to Dalal Street

Understandably, the screenshots are like an irresistible magnet to traders and investors, who are otherwise languishing in poverty.

“If the experienced traders can effortlessly rake in so much money, can I not rake in a fraction of that,” is the question that arises in everyone’s minds.

They are accordingly rushing to Dalal Street, eager to join workshops and seminars and learn the tricks of the trade.

We can gauge the extent of demand and interest from the fact that a webinar conducted by a trader named P. R. Sundar attracted 8700 attendees and raised Rs. 85 lakh for charity.

#PRSundarChallenge I challenge my fellow traders to take this up: the challenge is not to conduct webinar for 8700+ participants, the challenge is to raise ₹85 Lakhs+ for charity. The former will satisfy only your ego, the latter will satisfy thousands of stomachs
(1/2)

— P R Sundar (@PRSundar64) May 16, 2020

PR Sundar’s YouTube channel is also bursting with subscribers.

At last count, there are a mammoth 1.32 lakh subscribers, and each video has hundreds of comments from excited viewers.

Another popular trader/ trainer named Nitin Bhatia has 7.45 lakh subscribers on YouTube with 522,37,766 views.

Sunil Minglani, also a popular trader/ trainer boasts of a subscriber base of 5.97 lakh.

Zerodha & CDSL are big beneficiaries of the screenshot boom

The MTM screenshots boom has benefitted stock market intermediaries the most.

According to a report in the ET, Zerodha‘s monthly account openings have doubled since February, with a 20% increase in first-time investors.

Most of the recruits are youngsters, under 30 years old.

“Seeing this happen for the first time in my 15 years of broking. Account openings going through the roof after a crash in the markets,” Nithin Kamath said.

Seeing this happen for the first time in my 15 years of broking. Account openings going through the roof after a crash in the markets, new customers being smart, not panicking and telling that it is a good time to start buying for the long term. It is unreal! pic.twitter.com/yLcn2Jl2y2

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) March 17, 2020

Upstox, Zerodha’s rival in the discount-broking space, is also seeing a deluge of new applicants.

It had to move its processes to a cloud-based systems to cope with the jump in trading volume and account openings, Amit Lalan, its Director, said.

CDSL is also raking in big bucks with 1.2 million new accounts being opened in March and April, up from a combined 900,000 in the first two months of the year.

Skeptics cry foul

However, as with everything, there are always naysayers.

Some intellectuals are opposed to the practice of showing MTM screenshots.

They suspect that some, if not all, of the screenshots are bogus and designed to fool newcomers into joining seminars.

They never post losses snapshot

Most of these paid seminars are a scam and people should be careful of them.

If the analyst is so successful…then why he needs to do seminars and that too paid?

If purpose is education, then why charge? https://t.co/KHz25srGmO

— Darshan Mehta (@darshanvmehta1) May 7, 2020

I don’t know how all of #fintwit aren’t billionaires because every single person is right about every single stock move of all time and not only that but they are the biggest no brainers decisions of all time and you’d have to be an idiot not to see them coming.

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 6, 2020

Obviously, there is a lot of support for this point of view as well.

Traders who don't reveal the Sell Avg price, Buy Avg price, qty, Strike etc should be banned from posting mtm screenshots.

Worst lot are the ones who learn from transparent screenshots on twitter but when people ask them to reveal, they don't oblige.

— Aditya Todmal Trader (@AdityaTodmal) May 13, 2020

However, others claimed that not posting a screenshot implies that losses have been suffered and so one has to perforce post a screenshot.

If I post mtm screenshot, somebody say, 'Why are you bragging?'
If I don't post, somebody say, 'Why you did not post, have you lost?'
What to do? Even with increased margin, we are doing reasonably well. Made more than Rs 10 lakhs mtm profit in one account. pic.twitter.com/M2mEZr922g

— P R Sundar (@PRSundar64) January 24, 2019

The debate will never end!