What SEBI FY25 derivatives study actually shows
Everyone quotes the 91%. Almost nobody quotes the number that follows it, which is the one that should settle the argument.
Published 28 July 2026 · 6 min read · Sources listed at the end
The headline numbers
SEBI studies the outcomes of individual traders using data from the brokers themselves, covering crores of real accounts. These are counts, not surveys or opinions.
| Period | Finding |
|---|---|
| FY22 | 89% of individual F&O traders lost money |
| FY24 | 91.1% lost money |
| FY22 to FY24 | 93% lost money. Aggregate losses above Rs 1.8 lakh crore |
| FY25 | 91% lost money. Net losses about Rs 1.06 lakh crore, up 41% |
The FY25 study covered about 96 lakh unique traders across the top 13 brokers. Average loss per trader: roughly Rs 1.1 lakh.
The number nobody quotes
From the FY22 to FY24 study, read this slowly.
Only 7.2% of individual traders made any profit at all across three years. And only about 1% earned more than Rs 1 lakh a year after transaction costs.
Not a fortune. One lakh rupees. Roughly one in a hundred participants cleared that bar, over three years, in a segment marketed relentlessly as a route to replacing an income.
The other tail is worse. The worst affected 3.5% of loss makers, about four lakh people, lost an average of Rs 28 lakh each over the same three years.
The reforms worked, and the loss rate did not move
SEBI responded to this data with structural changes rolled out from November 2024: index contract values raised from a Rs 5 to 10 lakh band to Rs 15 to 20 lakh, weekly expiries cut to one benchmark per exchange, upfront premium collection, an extra 2% Extreme Loss Margin near expiry, and intraday position limit monitoring.
The effect on participation was immediate. Unique individual F&O traders fell from 61.4 lakh in Q1 FY25 to 42.7 lakh in Q4, a decline of about 20% in six months.
And yet the loss rate stayed at 91%.
That combination is the most informative thing in the study. Fewer people are participating, and the smallest accounts were pushed out first by the higher capital requirement. The activity did not become safer. It became more expensive to enter.
The cash segment is not much better
Derivatives get the attention. The equity intraday numbers deserve as much.
- 65% to 71% of individual intraday traders lost money each year from FY20 to FY24.
- Among traders under 30 in FY23, the loss rate was about 76%.
- The share of intraday traders under 30 rose from 18% in FY20 to 48% in FY24.
- Only about 10% of these traders also ran a mutual fund SIP.
That last figure describes the pattern better than any individual trade. The overwhelming majority were treating the market as a short term opportunity rather than building anything.
What to take from it
Not that trading is immoral, or that nobody should ever do it. The useful takeaway is narrower and harder to argue with.
If you are considering derivatives, you are entering a segment where the measured outcome for people like you is a loss, in every year the regulator has examined, including after reforms designed specifically to improve it. That is the base rate you would be betting against.
Read the full picture in futures and options and intraday trading.
Where these facts come from
- SEBI study on profit and loss of individual traders in the equity F&O segment, FY25
- SEBI study covering FY22 to FY24, published September 2024
- SEBI study on individual intraday trading in the equity cash segment