New Delhi, May 20 -- The dream of becoming rich overnight is pushing a growing number of young Indians down a dangerous path-gambling on risky trades, taking high-interest loans, and ending up deep in debt.

Encouraged by social media finfluencers and emboldened by behavioural biases such as herd mentality, FOMO (fear of missing out), and overconfidence, these retail traders are chasing high-risk derivatives trading and initial public offering (IPO) flipping.

According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the number of intraday traders has surged fivefold, with nearly 48% of new entrants under the age of 30. A staggering 93% of the 1.13 crore traders between 2022 and 2024 ended up losing money-amounting to combined losses of...