Back in 2021 I applied for my very first IPO. And through nothing but luck, I actually got the allotment. No strategy, no edge, just the draw landing in my favor for once. I sold on listing day for a modest, completely unremarkable profit.
And I mean modest. No lakhs, no dramatic windfall, no story worth exaggerating. Just a few thousand rupees more than I'd put in. The kind of gain that barely registers on a spreadsheet.
But here's the strange part. I remember that trade more clearly than trades ten times its size that I've done since. Bigger wins, bigger losses, all kinds of positions, and yet this tiny one stays sharp in my memory while the others blur together.
I think it's because it was the first time the market ever actually worked in my favor. The first time I put money in and got a little more back, cleanly, the way it's supposed to work in the fantasy version everyone sells you. It didn't make me rich. It just made me believe, for one afternoon, that this whole thing might be real. That first small yes is the one that hooked me.