Few traders who stay active for all five years make money in every one of them
SEBI's Aug 2026 study of FY26 is the number behind the headline. It covered the individual traders of the top fifteen brokers, about 90% of all individual traders in equity F&O, and found that 87.7% made a net loss and that options were 92% of individual losses. That is nearly nine in ten, as in SEBI's earlier studies for FY22 and for FY22 to FY24. The study counts each trader's net result for the year, so it cannot show who lost on each trade.
Most of the losses sit in options, and most traders are options buyers. In a random sample of about 5,050 traders, which SEBI calls indicative, 97% were mainly options buyers in FY26. A buyer has to be right on direction and on timing, because the premium decays with time. Costs come out of every trade, win or lose: SEBI puts the transaction costs of individual traders at about Rs 25,000 crore in each of FY25 and FY26.
Losses also repeat. Among traders who kept trading, 90 to 92% of those who lost in the two years before lost again the next year. The chart shows how few of the traders active in all five years from FY22 to FY26 were profitable in every one.
Read the number as a warning about the activity, not a verdict on any one trader. A trader can lose in one year and win in the next, and the study does not follow any trader's decisions. SEBI itself says the fall from FY25 should be read with caution, because far fewer traders were active. The module on the SEBI loss studies walks through the reports.
Before you trade. Derivatives trading carries a high risk of loss. SEBI's study "Profitability of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25 to FY26)" (August 2026) found that 87.7% of individual traders in equity F&O made net losses in FY26, with aggregate net losses of Rs 91,685 crore. Read the SEBI study