Sebi examine confirmed particular person merchants posted combination web losses of about Rs 91,685 crore in FY26, in contrast with about Rs 1.12 lakh crore in FY25. The autumn in whole losses got here primarily as a result of the variety of lively particular person merchants declined, not as a result of outcomes improved meaningfully for individuals who continued buying and selling. Common loss per dealer rose marginally to about Rs 1.17 lakh throughout the yr.
Meanwhie, lively particular person merchants declined about 20% to 78.6 lakh in FY26 from 98.1 lakh in FY25, whereas new entrants dropped about 40%.
The findings are a part of two analytical research launched by Sebi’s Division of Financial and Coverage Evaluation. The primary examine checked out profitability of particular person merchants within the fairness derivatives phase throughout FY25 and FY26. The second examined buying and selling behaviour throughout the identical interval.
The profitability examine relies on knowledge from the highest 15 brokers within the fairness derivatives phase, masking about 90% of all particular person traders within the phase. The buying and selling behaviour examine relies primarily on a random pattern of 5,000 particular person merchants, together with profitability knowledge from the highest 15 brokers.
Choices remained the principle supply of losses. Sebi stated round 92% of combination losses incurred by particular person merchants got here from choices buying and selling. The share of merchants who traded in futures declined marginally to six.6% from 6.7%.
Transaction prices added to the strain. Particular person merchants paid round Rs 25,000 crore in transaction prices in FY26. Over FY22-FY26, cumulative transaction prices paid by people stood at round Rs 1 lakh crore. Sebi stated despite the fact that derivatives premium turnover moderated throughout FY26, whole transaction prices remained broadly unchanged due to the rise in Securities Transaction Tax from October 1, 2024.The examine additionally confirmed that losses had been heavier amongst smaller traders. About 35% of particular person derivatives merchants had no fairness holdings, whereas almost 78% had fairness portfolios under Rs 1 lakh. Merchants with fairness portfolios under Rs 1 lakh accounted for about 70% of combination losses, regardless of contributing solely about half of the turnover.
Loss charges additionally fell as portfolio dimension elevated. Sebi stated 93% of merchants with no fairness holding made losses, in contrast with 58% of merchants holding greater than Rs 10 crore in fairness portfolios.
The revenue pool, in the meantime, remained tilted in direction of institutional {and professional} merchants. Proprietary merchants recorded the best gross buying and selling revenue at about Rs 44,000 crore, adopted by FPIs at Rs 14,000 crore, corporates at Rs 8,000 crore, mutual funds at Rs 3,000 crore and partnership corporations or LLPs at Rs 3,000 crore. Sebi stated 99% of income for FPIs and proprietary merchants got here from algo entities.
Retail buying and selling was additionally extremely concentrated close to expiry. Round 59% of index choices turnover got here from contracts expiring on the identical day, often known as 0DTE contracts. Round 75% of turnover got here from contracts expiring inside someday, and 97% got here from contracts expiring inside one week.
Sebi’s buying and selling behaviour examine confirmed that choices shopping for dominated retail exercise. Almost 97% of merchants primarily adopted option-buying methods, whereas solely about 2% had been categorised as primarily choices sellers. Choices sellers had been the one technique group to document constructive median returns on capital employed in FY26.
The examine additionally discovered that larger buying and selling depth was linked to larger loss charges. Youthful traders, lower-income teams and merchants with small fairness portfolios confirmed a lot larger buying and selling depth relative to their monetary sources.
Expertise didn’t enhance outcomes in a significant method. Sebi stated merchants with a number of consecutive years of derivatives participation recorded equally excessive loss charges. Losses additionally endured: amongst merchants who misplaced cash for 2 straight years and continued buying and selling, round 90% misplaced cash once more within the following yr.
Quarterly knowledge confirmed the identical sample. About 85% of trader-quarter observations had been loss-making, whereas solely 15% had been worthwhile. Amongst merchants who had each worthwhile and loss-making quarters, almost 79% made smaller common features in worthwhile quarters than the typical losses they suffered in dropping quarters.
The examine additionally confirmed that many merchants exit after losses. Between 28% and 40% of merchants lively in a single quarter didn’t commerce within the subsequent quarter. Of those that stopped buying and selling, round 86-89% had incurred losses within the earlier quarter.
(Disclaimer: Suggestions, options, views and opinions given by the consultants are their very own. These don’t symbolize the views of Financial Instances)
