Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath reveals why he stopped trading

“Nikhil is a much better trader than me. When we started, the idea was he would trade & I attempt to build Zerodha. If it didn’t work, I’d get back to trading. It did & Nik continues trading full-time. His trading profits the first 2 years is how we could build without VCs,” Kamath said in a tweet explaining why he stopped trading, a question that he gets asked often.

Calling Zerodha as the biggest trade of his life, the billionaire startup founder said trading isn’t just trading stocks but it’s trading your time and efforts to do things, where the risk to reward is most in your favour.

Started 12 years ago by the Kamath brothers in Bengaluru, Zerodha is now India’s largest stock broker.

“The reason why we do what we do is that we believe that more Indians should back entrepreneurs by taking some risks. Investments that can create jobs & wealth locally, & can lead to more inclusive economic growth. Money lying idle in physical assets doesn’t help the economy,” he said.

Apart from enabling Indians to invest through Zerodha, he said that they are using most of their personal and business success to back entrepreneurs. “We started Rainmatter in 2016 to help grow the capital market ecosystem by working with startups & doing whatever to help them. It’s a bit clichéd but wealth can’t make up for bad health. We also partner with startups working to help Indians make healthier choices,” he said

Kamath gave credit to free & open-source software (FOSS) as the main reason for the success of Zerodha. “We are constantly looking to give back not just by helping FOSS projects & companies, but our tech team also open sources all learnings & many internal projects,” he added.

Interestingly, the young entrepreneur doesn’t have a term insurance plan which is often regarded as a must-have.

“I don’t have term insurance because I have savings set aside to cover my dependents, which I cannot touch. This was possible only because I got supremely lucky, otherwise, almost everyone needs a term plan to ensure the dependents are protected,” he said.