The National Stock Exchange has issued a series of damning show-cause notices (SCNs) to Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd (NWML), a leading Indian broker facilitating trades for global heavyweights. The SCNs issued in 2024 and 2025 relate to clients including global trading giants Susquehanna Pacific Pty Ltd, Jane Street, and IMC Trading BV. The expose a troubling pattern of synchronized and reversed trades—potential hallmarks of market manipulation—while the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) remains eerily silent after its high-profile crackdown on Jane Street. Before he founded Jane Street, the elusive Robert Graineri cut his teeth at the Susquehanna Group.
In July 2025, SEBI dropped a bombshell, barring Jane Street Group entities from India’s securities market and impounding ₹4,843 crore in alleged illicit gains from a “sinister scheme” to manipulate Bank Nifty options. The regulator accused Jane Street of exploiting India’s expiry-day frenzy, building massive short options positions while aggressively trading index constituents like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank in cash and futures markets to artificially skew index levels, reaping ₹43,289 crore in profits at the expense of retail investors. The probe, triggered by NSE surveillance in November 2023 and a February 2025 caution letter that Jane Street allegedly ignored, culminated in SEBI’s interim order after NSE closed its investigation without action in May 2025. Jane Street insists its trades were legitimate index arbitrage, but the damage to India’s 1.5 crore F&O traders—90 percent of whom lose money—was undeniable.
Yet, the Jane Street case appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. A string of SCNs to NWML that suggest similar tactics by other global players, raising questions about systemic vulnerabilities in India’s derivatives market and SEBI’s sluggish response.
NSE’s Alarms: A Litany of Suspicious Trades
The SCNs paint a grim picture. On October 25, 2024, NSE flagged Jane Street and an entity called “TARA Smart” for executing matched and reversed F&O trades with the same counterparty, hinting at orchestrated profit transfers or artificial volume creation. NWML submitted responses on November 12 and 18, 2024, but the matter remains unresolved, disclosures made by the company show.
On December 13, 2024, Susquehanna Pacific Pty Ltd, the Asia-Pacific arm of the $626 billion Susquehanna International Group (SIG), was cited for identical matched and reversed trades, with NWML responding on December 27, 2024. Another SCN on January 16, 2025, targeted unnamed clients for the same pattern, with NWML’s response filed on January 27, 2025. A 2021 SCN against IMC Trading BV, a Dutch HFT giant, alleged synchronized trades executed via NWML’s direct market access (DMA) and algorithmic systems, reversed at off-market prices, with no resolution to date.
These trades—executed in milliseconds via high-frequency algorithms—bear the stench of manipulation, designed to either shift profits and losses or inflate volumes to mislead markets, experts say. NWML, a key enabler as the broker and trading member, insists its clients operate in fully automated environments without human intervention, but this defense sidesteps the core issue: these patterns undermine market integrity and fleece retail investors betting on fair play. But the allegations in NSE’s SCNs are pending resolution, and no final findings of wrongdoing have been established against NWML, Susquehanna, Jane Street, or IMC Trading in the respective particular matters.
Susquehanna’s Shadow: A Jane Street Connection?
The overlap between Jane Street and Susquehanna is hard to ignore. Jane Street’s co-founder, Rob Granieri, honed his craft at SIG, where he earned millions as a trader before launching Jane Street in 1999 with fellow SIG alumni Tim Reynolds and Marc Gerstein. Both firms are titans of quantitative trading, leveraging cutting-edge algorithms and market-making prowess to dominate global derivatives. While no evidence directly ties Susquehanna to Jane Street’s alleged index-rigging playbook, the NSE’s SCN against Susquehanna Pacific for matched trades raises suspicions. SIG’s recent hiring of compliance staff in India, suggests it’s bracing for SEBI’s scrutiny as the regulator widens its net to probe HFT firms like Citadel and IMC for exploiting enriched NSE data feeds.
SEBI’s Deafening Silence
SEBI’s inaction since its July 2025 order against Jane Street is glaring. Despite NSE’s flurry of SCNs exposing similar suspicious patterns, the regulator has issued no further orders, leaving investors and markets vulnerable. Sources claim SEBI is “overwhelmed” by the scale of F&O manipulation, with foreign prop traders exploiting India’s lax oversight and retail-heavy market. The NSE’s own failure to act decisively—closing its Jane Street probe in May 2025 without penalties—only emboldened bad actors, forcing SEBI to step in. Yet, the regulator’s silence on Susquehanna, IMC, and others suggests either bureaucratic inertia or a reluctance to confront powerful global firms.
A Market at Risk
India’s F&O market, fueled by 1.5 crore retail traders and a daily turnover dwarfing global peers, is a goldmine for HFT firms. But the NSE’s SCNs and the Jane Street scandal reveal a darker truth: foreign players, facilitated by brokers like NWML, may be rigging the game. Retail investors, lured by tales of quick riches, are left holding the bag as billions are siphoned through synchronized trades and expiry-day manipulations. SEBI’s proposed reforms—tighter surveillance, higher margins, and investor education—lag behind the problem’s scale. Until the regulator breaks its silence and acts on the mounting evidence, India’s markets remain a playground for global giants at the expense of the common trader. |
