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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026

 

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--SEBI releases analysis of equity F&O investors' profits, losses for FY26
--SEBI: Retail aggregate net loss dn 18% to INR 916.85 bln FY26 in equity F&O
--SEBI: Proprietary traders gross profit INR 444.80 bln in equity F&O FY26
--SEBI: Proprietary traders gross profit INR 459.50 bln in equity F&O FY25
--SEBI: FPI gross profit INR 139 bln in equity F&O FY26 vs INR 310.8 bln FY25
--SEBI: Avg net loss per trader INR 117,000 FY26 vs INR 113,000 FY25
--SEBI: Shr of loss making individuals in equity F&O 87.7% FY26 vs 90.9% FY25
--SEBI:Options trading accounted 92% of total retail loss in equity F&O FY26

 

MUMBAI – The share of loss-making individuals in equity derivatives trading fell to 87.7% in the financial year 2025-26 (Apr-Mar) from 90.9% in FY25, according to the latest annual analysis of profitability of traders by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The loss-making individuals' share in equity options trading for FY26 was 87.7% while their share in equity futures trading was lower at 66%, the analysis showed.

 

SEBI Thursday released the analysis of profitability of individual traders in the equity derivatives segment of stock exchanges for FY26. The analysis covers client-level information from the top 15 brokers in terms of their equity derivatives turnover from FY22 to FY24. SEBI also released another report Thursday that looked at a very small sample of individual traders' data and analysed their trading behaviour in FY26.

 

The aggregate net losses of individual traders in equity derivatives declined 18% to INR 916.85 billion in FY26, according to the SEBI analysis on profitability. "Despite lower aggregate losses, the average loss per person increased marginally by 2%" to INR 117,000 from INR 113,000 in FY25, "indicating that while fewer individuals traded, those who did lost more on average", SEBI said.

 

There was a large concentration of losses in the individual trader category. A substantial proportion, nearly 90%, of total losses were concentrated in just 23% of individual traders, as per the data in SEBI's analysis. Further, among individual traders, the average loss in equity derivatives among loss-makers was INR 147,000 while the average profit among profit-makers was INR 122,000.

 

There was a significant difference in the trend between the aggregate net losses and aggregate gross losses of individual traders. SEBI considers trading profit or loss before excluding transaction costs to be gross profit or loss and after excluding transaction costs to be net profit or loss. While individual traders' aggregate net loss in equity derivatives fell 18% to INR 916.85 billion in FY26, their aggregate gross loss fell 26% to INR 720 billion.

 

For the first time since FY16, the number of active individual traders in equity derivatives fell on a year-on-year basis in FY26, SEBI said in its analysis. There were 8.75 million active individual traders in FY26, 18% lower than 10.62 million in FY25. "The decline in participation was more pronounced among smaller traders" with annual turnover below INR 10,000, SEBI said.

 

The pace of exits by individual traders from equity derivatives trading "accelerated in FY26," according to the regulator. Around 4.6 million individual traders in equity derivatives in FY25 did not trade in FY26. In FY25, the number of such investors exiting was much lower at 2.6 million.

 

Non-individual trader categories made gross trading profits in FY26 but the profit levels fell for most of them. Foreign portfolio investors' aggregate gross trading profit fell 55% to INR 139 billion while corporations and trusts saw their aggregate gross trading profit fall 28% to INR 59.60 billion. Mutual funds' aggregate gross trading profit fell 54% to INR 25.90 billion.

 

Proprietary traders, which accounted for the highest aggregate gross trading profit in equity derivatives at about INR 440 billion in FY26, also recorded a decline of 3% in their aggregate profit, according to SEBI. Nearly all, or 99%, of the profits for FPIs and proprietary traders were made by entities which did at least one trade in a year using algorithmic order, SEBI said in its analysis.

 

Further, the profitability among proprietary traders "remained highly concentrated", according to SEBI. The top 10 proprietary traders earned about 75% of the category's aggregate gross profit in FY26. These top 10 proprietary traders also accounted for a substantial 85% share in options trading activity and 65% in futures trading.

 

In terms of the nature of index options trading activity in FY26, SEBI said in its analysis that following its policy measures in the equity derivatives segment a couple of years ago, the share of expiry-day turnover to total options turnover declined to 59% in FY26 from 70% in FY25.

 

In the second report SEBI released Thursday on equity derivatives, it looked at trading strategies, capital employed, persistence, and behavioural patterns among individual traders for FY26 and FY25. This was, however, based on a random sample of only 5,050 individual traders in the equity derivatives segment. SEBI said this sample "does not reflect entire population of traders... (therefore) the findings in this report are only indicative and should be interpreted with caution."

 

Among the key findings, SEBI said retail participation in equity derivatives was concentrated among low-capital traders. "About 77% of traders used peak margin below 1 lakh (INR 100,000), but accounted for only 8% of turnover and 14% of losses," the market regulator said in its report. Conversely, 23% of retail traders who used more than INR 100,000 of capital accounted for 92% of turnover and 86% of losses, it said.

 

On the trading strategies adopted by this small sample of individual traders, SEBI said options-buying traders accounted for the largest share of aggregate losses at 65% and had the highest incidence of loss-makers at around 90%. Further, many traders continued trading despite repeated losses, with around 90% of traders who lost money in the previous two consecutive years losing again after continuing to trade, as per SEBI's report.  End

 

Reported by Rajesh Gajra

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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