NSE CEO Ashish Chauhan Reveals the Costliest Mistake of His Life — and the Lesson That Changed Everything What happens when you lose more than a year’s salary
What happens when you lose more than a year’s salary before your career even begins? For Ashish Kumar Chauhan, now the CEO of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), it became the most expensive lesson of his life.
In an interview with NDTV Profit, Chauhan revealed how he lost ₹50,000 — a massive sum at the time — during the infamous Harshad Mehta scam in the early 1990s. To put that in perspective, his salary back then was just ₹3,000 per month.
That’s 16 months’ worth of pay, gone in a flash.
It wasn’t just a financial hit — it was a wake-up call. At a time when he was just starting his career, Chauhan made the mistake many first-time investors make: chasing quick money.
“I lost ₹50,000 in the Harshad Mehta scam. My monthly salary was ₹3,000. It took a lot out of me emotionally and financially,” Chauhan shared.
He admitted that the loss shook him to the core but also taught him lessons he carries with him to this day — lessons that would eventually shape his journey to becoming one of the most respected names in Indian finance.
The Harshad Mehta scam wasn’t just a moment of market volatility — it was a system-wide fraud that exploited loopholes in the Indian banking system, ultimately causing thousands of investors to lose money.
For Chauhan, the experience was personal. It taught him about:
One of the biggest takeaways was how borrowing money to invest can destroy wealth instead of building it. Leverage, when not understood properly, can magnify losses.
In bull markets, it’s easy to believe you’re a genius. But as Chauhan learned, if you don’t understand what you’re investing in, you’re just gambling — and the house always wins.
Perhaps most importantly, Chauhan learned to separate emotion from investing — something that would later become a core principle of his leadership at NSE.
Most people would be crushed after such a loss, especially early in their career. But Ashish Chauhan did the opposite — he used it as fuel.
Rather than running away from the markets, he dove deeper. He went on to play a key role in setting up the National Stock Exchange, and eventually became its CEO, overseeing one of the most technologically advanced exchanges in the world.
Ashish Chauhan’s story is more than just a personal anecdote — it’s a powerful reminder for today’s retail investors who are diving headfirst into markets, sometimes without understanding the risks.
Whether it’s crypto, small-cap stocks, F&O trading, or high-leverage intraday bets, the lessons remain the same:
Ashish Chauhan’s story proves something rare in the world of finance — you can lose money and still become a legend. The ₹50,000 he lost decades ago taught him what no book could: how to respect the market, stay disciplined, and think long-term.
Today, he runs the very institution that safeguards India’s capital markets. And it all started with a mistake — the kind many people make, but only a few grow from.
