JOINING THE Indian upper middle class often requires winning a lottery. Hundreds of thousands apply for the H1-B sweepstakes(抽奖；抽签), hoping to land a skilled-worker visa to America. Millions sit exams for one of a few thousand coveted(令人垂涎的) government jobs. And millions more are trying their luck(碰运气) in the derivatives market.
加入印度中上阶层往往需要中彩票般的运气。数十万人申请H1-B签证抽签，希望获得赴美技术工人签证。数百万人参加考试，争夺数千个令人垂涎的政府职位。还有数百万人正在衍生品市场碰运气。
Options, which confer(授予；赋予) the right to buy or sell an asset at a given price in the future, are particularly popular. Because investors can gain large notional exposure for a small premium, the fortunate can turn a 2% move in a benchmark index into “multibagger” that returns many times the original investment.(因为投资者只需少量权利金就能获得巨大名义敞口，幸运者能将基准指数2%的波动转化为多倍回报。) Most punters(投机者；赌徒), though, are not fortunate. A study by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI(印度证券交易委员会)) found that nine in ten traders lose around $1,400 a year, a vast sum by Indian standards.
期权赋予持有者在未来以特定价格买入或卖出资产的权利，因此特别受欢迎。由于投资者只需支付少量权利金就能获得巨大的名义敞口，幸运者能将基准指数2%的波动转化为“多倍股”，获得数倍于原始投资的回报。然而，大多数投机者并不幸运。印度证券交易委员会（SEBI）的一项研究发现，十分之九的交易者每年损失约1400美元，按印度标准这是一笔巨款。
SEBI has tried to discourage novices(新手) by raising the minimum contract size, stopping brokers from offering credit and other restrictions. It has also targeted market-makers(做市商) it sees as taking advantage of(利用；占便宜) unsophisticated patsies(替罪羊；易上当的人). It has pursued a case against Jane Street, an American hedge fund, which it accuses of market manipulation.(它对美国对冲基金Jane Street提起诉讼，指控其操纵市场。) On August 20th it banned a Mauritius-based vehicle(工具；载体) owned by JPMorgan Chase, an American bank, for similar offences. All this has taken some of the steam out of(给……降温) the options boom(繁荣；热潮). In the past year or so volumes of index options, the most popular sort, have fallen by 52% and the number of registered derivatives traders is down from nearly 10m to 7.9m.
印度证券交易委员会试图通过提高最低合约规模、禁止券商提供信贷及其他限制措施来劝阻新手。它还针对那些它认为利用不谙世事的散户的做市商。它对美国对冲基金Jane Street提起诉讼，指控其操纵市场。8月20日，它禁止了美国银行摩根大通旗下的一家毛里求斯实体，理由是其有类似违规行为。这一切都给期权热潮降了温。在过去一年左右的时间里，最受欢迎的指数期权成交量下降了52%，注册衍生品交易员数量从近1000万降至790万。