The Charges Against You
- 95% of traders commit at least 4 of these 7 sins — and the market always delivers the sentence
- Each sin alone can kill an account. Combined, they're nuclear
- The biggest sin? Believing you're the exception
- Every blown account is a confession to one of these crimes
- The market doesn't care about intentions — only actions
- You can't negotiate, bribe, or charm your way out. The market is the ultimate judge
The Court Convenes
*BANG*
The gavel strikes. The room falls silent.
You're sitting in the defendant's chair, palms sweating, watching as the prosecutor — Mr. Market himself — rises from his seat. He doesn't smile. He never does. He's been doing this for 400 years, and he's never lost a case.
"Your Honor," he begins, voice cold as a margin call at 3 AM, "the defendant stands accused of seven counts of trading malpractice. The evidence is their Zerodha statement. The witnesses are their sleepless nights. The victims are their dreams of financial freedom."
You want to object. You want to scream that you were just trying to make some quick money. That the YouTube guru said it was a sure thing. That everyone else was doing it.
But here's the thing about Mr. Market's courtroom:
There are no excuses. Only outcomes.
"The market is a cruel teacher. It gives the test first and the lesson afterward."
— Old Wall Street Saying
Where portfolios come to confess their sins
The Seven Charges
You took a loss. It stings. Your ego bleeds. And instead of stepping back, you double down. You NEED to make it back. RIGHT NOW. So you take another trade. And another. Each one worse than the last. Each one more desperate.
Revenge trading isn't a strategy. It's an emotional hostage situation where you're both the kidnapper and the victim. The market didn't hurt you. You hurt yourself, then blamed the market, then attacked the market, then the market destroyed you.
Leverage is a weapon. In the hands of a master, it builds empires. In the hands of a novice, it's a loaded gun pointed at your own head with the safety off.
You're given 5x leverage. Your brain says: "Why make ₹5,000 when I could make ₹25,000?" But it conveniently forgets: "Why lose ₹5,000 when I could lose ₹25,000?"
Every legendary blowup — LTCM, Archegos, Amaranth — they all had leverage as the murder weapon. Not bad ideas. Not unlucky timing. Leverage turned manageable losses into extinction events.
"It'll come back."
Those three words have destroyed more trading accounts than every scam artist combined. They're the mantra of the hopeful, the prayer of the delusional, the epitaph on the tombstone of your capital.
DHFL: ₹690 → ₹0
Jet Airways: ₹1,200 → Delisted
Narrator: It did not come back.
A stop-loss isn't an admission of defeat. It's a fire exit. When the building is burning, you don't stand there hoping the flames will get tired. You run.
But no, your ego won't let you. Booking a loss means admitting you were wrong. And being wrong is unbearable. So you hold. And hold. And hold. Until holding becomes a euphemism for drowning.
You stare at charts all day. Every candle is an opportunity. Every tick is a signal. You MUST be in a trade. Being in cash feels like failure. Like you're missing out. Like everyone else is getting rich while you watch.
So you trade. And trade. And trade some more.
Average professional: 3-5 trades per month
One is making money. Guess which one.
Every trade has a cost — brokerage, slippage, spread, STT, GST. You're paying the market a tax for the privilege of losing money. And you're paying it 50 times a month.
The best trade is often no trade. But that requires patience. Discipline. The ability to sit on your hands. Skills the market never taught you because it makes money when you trade.
"The stock is cheaper now! I'll buy more and lower my average!"
Translation: "The market is proving me wrong, but instead of accepting it, I'll bet BIGGER that I'm right."
This is not investing. This is bargaining with reality. And reality always wins the negotiation.
Average at: ₹400 — "Even better value!"
Average at: ₹300 — "It can't go lower"
Average at: ₹200 — "I'm all in"
Current price: ₹45
Congratulations, you've averaged down to oblivion.
A falling stock doesn't know your average price. It doesn't care. It might fall 20%. Or 50%. Or 99%. Averaging down in a loser is like doubling your bet at a casino table where you've lost ten times in a row.
"Bhai, pakka tip hai. 100% guaranteed. Double in 2 weeks."
If it was 100% guaranteed, why would anyone share it with you? Why wouldn't they mortgage their house, max out their credit cards, and bet everything?
Think about it for one second. Just one.
→ Operator buys stock at ₹50
→ Tips the stock to 10,000 people
→ Price pumps to ₹80 on buying
→ Operator sells at ₹80
→ Price crashes to ₹40
→ 10,000 people wonder what happened
You were the exit liquidity. Congratulations.
Every tip you follow without understanding is a confession that you don't know what you're doing. And if you don't know what you're doing, why are you in the market?
You've been winning. Every trade is green. You feel unstoppable. Risk management feels like a speed limit when you're a Formula 1 driver. Why slow down when you're on fire?
So you increase position sizes. You stop using stop-losses. You concentrate into fewer positions. You YOLO into trades that "feel right."
And then comes the day.
Lose 50% → Need 100% gain to recover
Lose 75% → Need 300% gain to recover
Lose 90% → Need 900% gain to recover
One bad day can undo a year of profits. In minutes.
Risk management isn't about being scared. It's about being smart enough to survive. The market rewards those who can play tomorrow. The dead don't get second chances.
The Verdict Calculator
Be honest with yourself. Count how many of these seven sins you've committed in the past month. No one is watching. This is between you and your broker statement.
You might actually make it
Still learning
Account in danger
Blowup imminent
Already dead, just don't know it
The Death Spiral
These sins don't work in isolation. They chain together, each one feeding the next, creating a death spiral that accelerates until there's nothing left. Here's how it typically unfolds:
The Confession Booth
Before we proceed to sentencing, the court offers you an opportunity for reflection. These are questions you must answer honestly — not for me, not for the court, but for yourself.
Crimes: Revenge trading, overleveraging, hopium addiction, tip addiction, ego protection, and capital destruction
The Path to Redemption
The court, in its infinite wisdom, offers a path to redemption. Not forgiveness — the market never forgives — but a chance to stop repeating the same crimes.
These are the rules of parole. Break them, and the market will find you. It always does.
The Closing Statement
*The gavel hovers*
The prosecution rests. The evidence is overwhelming. The witnesses — your own trade history — have testified against you.
But here's what Mr. Market won't tell you: Every trader who's ever succeeded has sat in this same chair. Every legend started as a criminal. Every master was once a disaster.
"I've lost more money than most traders will ever make. But I'm still here. That's the only difference that matters."
— Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager
The market isn't trying to punish you. It's trying to teach you. Every loss is a lesson. Every blown account is an education. The only true failure is quitting before you learn.
So here's your sentence:
You are sentenced to survive long enough to get good at this.
That's all trading really is. Survival. Stay in the game. Protect your capital. Learn from every mistake. And slowly — painfully, frustratingly, inevitably — improve.
The market will give you infinite opportunities. But only if you're still here to take them.
Court is adjourned.
*BANG*
You are not your past trades. You are not your blown accounts. You are not your mistakes.
You are what you do next.
The market is still open. The opportunity is still there. The only question is:
Will you keep committing the same crimes, or will you finally learn?