Indian-origin techie loses over ₹2 crore to stock trading: ‘I went to gambling addiction program’
An Indian-origin software developer has opened up about losing a huge sum of money to stock trading, saying that the thrill of huge gains pushed him to take increasingly risky bets despite devastating losses. Akshay Sapra, 31, spoke to Business Insider about his trading addiction and how his early childhood experience with money shaped his behaviour.A techie shared how he lost huge amounts of money to stock trading. (Representational image/Gemini AI generated)From India to CanadaSapra was born in India. When he was four years old, his parents moved to Canada. “They worked odd jobs to make ends meet: moving boxes, driving a taxi, or working as a security guard,” he recalled.His father was a veterinarian profession. It took him nearly a decade to establish a successful veterinary practice in Kelowna, Canada.Sapra says the experience of financial insecurity left him with a lasting scarcity mindset.“My parents’ scarcity mindset shaped my relationship with money, even after we got out of poverty,” he said, explaining that his childhood trauma was shaped financial challenges, his mother’s battle with brain tumour and being bullied at school.First brush with tradingSapra’s first brush with stock trading came while he was a college student in 2017. A university friend told him that marijuana was going to be legalised in Canada and suggested some marijuana stocks.Sapra bought them. The stocks went up, but he didn’t make much money because he kept buying and selling, trying to predict short-term price movements.This is when he realised he had what he calls “paper hands” — he couldn’t comfortably hold investments for the long term.The Indian-origin techie said that after his first brush with stock trading, he could not stop transacting. He would sit and trade on his laptop during lectures.“At first, I lost a lot of the money, which came from my campus jobs and professional internships. But I learned and started to make money,” he said.(Also read:
