Like a movie star at a premiere, Mohammad Nasiruddin Ansari steps out of the back seat of a white Mercedes. Flanked by a phalanx of black-clad bodyguards, he strides into the lobby of a luxury hotel and takes center stage in a ballroom as indoor fireworks machines spew fountains of sparks. “If you don’t make money in three months, I will give you 2 million rupees [$24,000],” he declares to cheers from the adoring crowd in a scene that’s still playing on YouTube.
Ansari is meeting his fans in Pune, about 90 miles south of Mumbai. He’s selling the dream of stock market riches to India’s fast-growing cadre of small investors. With half a million social media followers, he’s pushing an especially risky strategy: trading stock options, often as all-or-nothing bets on future share prices.
