The data shows that about 90 per cent of F&O traders lose money, often because of market illiteracy. More than 75 per cent of loss-makers kept trading even after losing money for two consecutive years. With gambling banned in India, F&O has become a proxy for many. https://theprint.in/ground-reports/profit-in-ny-loss-in-up-what-jane-street-market-manipulation-did-to-tier-2-3-india/2719174/
“Retail traders from smaller cities have been at a disadvantage. Jane Street’s alleged manipulation only deepened their losses, quite dramatically,” said Mayank Bansal, a United Arab Emirates-based hedge fund manager who first flagged the expiry-day manipulations.
He first noticed the disruption of the F&O market in July 2023 and by January of the next year, his suspicions about Jane Street’s apparent manipulation crystallised.
Jane Street stands accused of manipulating the Indian market for huge profits. The alleged strategy was to buy up Bank Nifty stocks in the morning and then sell them off aggressively by afternoon. This ended up in a situation where the stock prices would fall sharply. Even if Jane Street lost money on those trades, they had another way to profit. They placed big bets — short positions in index options — that paid out when the market dropped. Between January 2023 and March 2025, Jane Street Group made total trading profits of Rs 36,502 crore, according to SEBI’s probe. The regulator alleged that Rs 4,843 crore of this amounted to “unlawful gains”.