Meaning:
“踩” means to “step on,” and “雷” is short for “地雷,” which means “a land mine.” Often used as a metaphor, this term refers to unwittingly invest in the stocks of a company found out to be fraudulent or involved in other malpractices. The investor often suffers a great loss after the malpractices are exposed, a disaster compared to stepping on a land mine. In a similar scenario, a unlucky person investing in a P2P lending platform which turns out to be a Ponzi scheme is also said to have “stepped on a land mine.”
Example:
A: 听说小李最近买了一只生产疫苗的公司股票踩雷了。
Tīngshuō xiǎolǐ zuìjìn mǎi le yīzhī shēngchǎn yìmiáo de gōngsī gǔpiào cǎiléi le。
I’ve heard that Xiao Li recently bought the stocks of a vaccine manufacturer found with malpractices and suffered a great loss.
B: 是长生生物吗？他运气真不好。
Shì zhǎngshēngshēngwù ma？Tā yùnqì zhēn bù hǎo。
Was it Changsheng Bio-tech that he bought? He’s got very bad luck.