How retail traders navigate full-time trading risks

Mint spoke with traders who left salaried jobs to trade full-time, on what it takes to make it work in this changed environment.At 58, Manish (name changed) left his job as a director at one of the Big Four firms in 2018 to start a renewables-focused start-up. With that not panning out as expected, he wanted to keep his income level sustained without disturbing the corpus he had.He decided to take up trading full-time and started doing certificate courses for currency and derivatives trading, took the NSE exam, and attended various private classes.

“That helped quite a lot, but you have to read some very important fundamental books, Options as a Strategic Investment by Lawrence G. McMillan is one which I followed very rigorously,” he said.Multiple Sebi surveys have shown that trading is a losing game for retail traders.

Its latest study, published in July 2025, showed that 91% of equity derivatives traders incurred losses in 2024-25. In the cash market, its 2024 study revealed that over 70% of individual intraday traders in the equity cash segment incurred losses during 2022-23 and frequent traders of over 500 trades per year had an even higher loss rate of 80%.But Manish wanted to approach it the right way, and he finally started to make money after three years in 2021.

“I could easily make 10% on the amount deployed per month, minimum,” he claimed, adding that the person who taught us advised us to take profit and invest in Nifty ETFs.With recent policy changes, Manish believes options are abnormally priced, which is what drove him out of markets; a small mistake could lead to a huge loss of capital. Right now, Manish is relying on his corpus for his post-retirement income.Anish Jacob, a 34-year-old Bengaluru-based