Did a Wall Street Giant Crush India’s Small Options Traders?

In Focus by The Hindu · Jul 28, 2025 · 27m

More than a year ago, on options expiry days, which are trading sessions when bets are settled, Mayank Bansal began to notice something odd. Prices were moving just before the close in ways that felt too precise. Someone was winning too perfectly.

Mayank, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based hedge fund manager, had spent years studying options — cheap, high-risk contracts that let you bet on where markets will go. If you're right, the profits can be huge. If you're wrong, which is what most retail investors are, you lose everything.

A U.S. court case would later point to Jane Street — one of…