Problem
Persistent Majority Losses Among Retail Equity-Derivatives Traders
- National
Almost everybody who trades equity derivatives as an individual loses money, and has done so year after year. The market regulator's own study for 2025-26 found that 87.7 per cent of individual traders made net losses, totalling ₹91,685 crore, with 92 per cent of those losses arising in options. The loss rate has fallen only slowly — 93 per cent, then over 91, then 87.7 — while participation and total losses fell more sharply in 2025-26, which SEBI attributes partly to its own curbs on weekly expiries and lot sizes. SEBI's earlier study covering 2021-22 to 2023-24 found that 93 per cent of individual traders lost money, with aggregate losses above ₹1.8 lakh crore over the three years.
This is the most specific entry on this branch of the catalogue. The evidence behind it is below.
Who is responsible
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) · Regulatory bodyPublishes the trader profitability studies and sets the index-options rules.
Evidence and sources
- SEBI, Profitability of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25-FY26) · Research paper or study · published 20 August 2026The study reports that 87.7 per cent of individual traders made net losses in 2025-26; aggregate net losses of ₹91,685 crore, about 18 per cent below the ₹1,05,603 crore of 2024-25; 92 per cent of losses arising in options; active individual traders falling from about 98 lakh to about 79 lakh; and transaction costs of about ₹25,000 crore. The study page and its publication date are on sebi.gov.in, but the study text is loaded by script and could not be read at that address, so the figures are taken from SEBI press release PR No. 50/2026 of 20 August 2026.
- SEBI press release: 93% of individual traders incurred losses in equity F&O between FY22 and FY24; aggregate losses exceed ₹1.8 lakh crore over three years · Government documentSEBI states the headline finding in the title of the release itself: 93 per cent of individual traders incurred losses between 2021-22 and 2023-24, with aggregate losses above ₹1.8 lakh crore. The underlying study also found that only 7.2 per cent of individual traders made a profit over the full three years.
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