Small and midcap stocks continue to face selling pressure, despite the Nifty hovering near its all-time high. Market breadth has weakened, and most retail investors are struggling with portfolios running deep in red. This raises a key question that every investor is silently asking: When will my portfolio stop bleeding?

To answer this, we must look beyond price charts and focus on a structural shift that has quietly changed trading behaviour; “the rise of Margin Trading Facility (MTF)”.

Last year, SEBI introduced new rules that pushed up F&O margins. As leveraged strategies became costlier, investors began looking for alternative routes to maintain exposure. This redirected them towards MTF. As a result, brokers expanded their MTF books rapidly, taking the industry-wide exposure from Rs

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