Capital Markets & Investor Protection

Persistent Majority Losses Among Retail Equity-Derivatives Traders

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.