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- Avadhut Sathe launched a trading academy and YouTube channel that attracted over 400,000 students by October 2025, collecting $63 million in fees from his $750 flagship course.
- SEBI analyzed brokerage accounts and found two-thirds of Sathe’s students lost money within six months of completing the course, including testimonials like Smruti and Lakshmi whose claimed gains did not match actual returns.
- Avadhut Sathe lost 43 million rupees ($450,000) in his personal trading account over 20 months through November 2025, while his company lost another $200,000, undermining his system's profitability claims.
- SEBI found 91% of equity derivatives participants in India lost money in FY2025, with 9.6 million individuals collectively losing $11 billion that year alone.
- SEBI banned Avadhut Sathe from selling courses in December for offering stock recommendations without proper registration and ordered him to disgorge fees.
- SEBI deployed an AI tool named Sudarshan to monitor and remove misleading investment advice on social media, alongside structural reforms like larger contract sizes and higher transaction taxes.
- National Stock Exchange of India earns 60% of its operating revenue from options trading and holds 72% of the equity index options market, as it prepares for an IPO amid regulatory tightening.
Why it matters: Retail investors lost $30 billion cumulatively over four years, yet the National Stock Exchange profits from volume growth, creating a misalignment between exchange incentives and investor outcomes just as SEBI escalates enforcement and rule changes to reduce speculation.
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