Not Chasing Riches
When he was young, Prateek Goel wanted to try his hand at everything. Solar. Automobiles. Defence. Banking. AI — every industry fascinated him. Each had a story he wanted to understand and be a part of.
But life gave him a reality check. No, he couldn’t work in every industry. Couldn’t build a business in every sector.
He felt stuck. What he wanted to do and what he could do seemed to be two different worlds.
It was the stock market that changed all that. He had been trading right from his college days. The market, he found, offered him a seat at every table. He could study the industries that interested him. Build an understanding of it. Then invest in the businesses he believed had a future — letting him own a part of their growth and journey.
Suddenly, he didn’t have to choose just one dream. He could be a part of many.
“That’s what pulled me into trading,” Goel says. “Not money. But this wanting to be everywhere.”
Learning It the Hard Way
Every second person told Goel the stock market was for gamblers. He refused to buy that. If so many investors all over the world could consistently create wealth for decades, he reasoned, there had to be some logic there.
People kept singing one line — 90% lose money here. He took it as a challenge, wanting to know what the other 10% knew. He entered with a lot of conviction, but not enough wisdom. He followed tips, not a process. Trusted the noise surrounding a stock, sidelining research. And paid heavily.
His first lesson cost him ₹2 lakh. He had borrowed this money from his father to buy Just Dial because everyone said it was a great company.
“The company wasn’t the problem. I was,” Goel says. He didn’t know, he explains, that you had to get ten things right to get your trade right. Picking the right stock was not enough — even the best stock will work for you only if you enter it at the right time. Same goes for exit. The timing, the research, his psychology and so much more had to be in line. He had factored in none of it. So, he lost.
Over the next ten years, the market brought him on his knees again and again, he says, made him pay and pay till it got clear in his head that in the market you can’t simply go chasing profits. Research alone won’t help either. He had to discipline himself first. Learn to be extremely patient. Wait for the right time and the right trade.
“The market wasn’t just testing my capital, it tested my character,” Goel says. It took him years to accept this brutal truth. But those years changed everything, he says.
His years at Moody’s Analytics proved a boon too. He worked with multiple databases to deep research businesses and understand what drives them. He combined this with technical analysis and market behaviour to build his own trading framework. Today, he’s a SEBI-registered Research Analyst who trades using strategies he has designed himself.
It worked for him. Next, he wanted it to work for many more. Could he teach others what life and the market had taught him? To answer this question, he started mentoring a few traders and newbies. The idea was to help them avoid the expensive mistakes he had made. The love and respect he got from them, he says, gave him the same high as his trades.
“So now I trade and also teach all to trade,” Goel says. Everyone who genuinely wants to learn is welcome at his institute, Equity Trading Hub. Over the years, hundreds have invested their faith in him and moved ahead in their trading journey — young graduates to retirees, from small towns to India’s biggest cities.
“If I can impact more and more lives, it will impact my life too,” he says.
Why Trading Is So Big for Him
Because this was never just about trading, Goel says. “It’s about freedom.”
Trading brings money, he explains, and that brings tremendous freedom. And money isn’t just about brands and lifestyle — it allows him to live his life as comfortably as he chooses to, and with dignity. Unlike most professions, he notes, there’s no ceiling to the amount you can earn if you learn to trade well.
He’s also free to take time off as and when he wants. And he does it often. “Last week, I wanted three days to myself,” he says. “So, I simply invested in trades I was comfortable holding, shut my laptop, and switched off.”
Even when he’s switched on, he’s free to work from anywhere. He just packs his bags and books a ticket whenever and wherever he feels like travelling. His laptop comes with him. So do his trading skills, and the trader mindset. “Give me a good internet connection,” he says, “and I’m good enough to trade from anywhere.”
His work days are not long either — enough time to spend it where it matters. Once the markets close, he can close his laptop too, making for good work-life balance. Gym or family, friends or swimming — he can do it all, or simply do nothing.
“Trading actually gives me the freedom to live life on my own terms,” Goel says. “I decide when to enter the market, when to stay away. Take daily trades that eat my head five days a week, or invest long-term and sit cosy — it’s totally on me.”
That’s why he trades. That’s why he teaches people to trade.
“Come to me, and I’ll shorten your learning curve,” he says. “Learn to earn something far bigger than money — earn the freedom to write your own story.”
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