SEBI F&O study FY26: what the numbers say

What did the SEBI F&O study for FY26 find?

On 20 August 2026, SEBI released two studies on individual traders in the equity derivatives (F&O) segment. One is about profit and loss. The other is about trading behaviour. Both cover FY25 and FY26. The main numbers come from SEBI press release No. 50/2026.

Other key points from the press release and the profitability study:

• The total loss fell about 18%, from ₹1,11,788 crore in FY25. But the average loss per trader went up about 2.4%.
• Traders who lost money lost ₹1.47 lakh on average. Traders who made money made ₹1.22 lakh on average.
• About 23% of traders caused nearly 90% of all losses.
• About 92% of the losses came from options.
• Before costs, 82.1% of traders lost money. After costs, 87.7% did. Individuals paid about ₹25,000 crore in transaction costs in FY26.
• New traders fell about 40%. About 46 lakh people who traded in FY25 did not trade in FY26.

Why two trader counts? The 78.6 lakh figure is SEBI's sample from the top 15 brokers, which covers about 90% of individual traders. The full market count fell 18%, from 106.2 lakh to 87.5 lakh. Press reports such as Business Today use the 87.5 lakh figure. The loss figures in this guide come from the 78.6 lakh sample.

How many F&O traders lose money, year by year?

The FY26 profitability study gives one series for five years, from the same top-15-broker sample. All losses are net, which means after transaction costs.

Source: SEBI, Profitability of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25–FY26), Table 2 and Charts 24, 25 and 27.

Over the five years, individual traders lost about ₹3.85 lakh crore in total. SEBI warns that the lower loss share in FY26 "should be read with caution", because 20% fewer people traded.

How does this compare with the earlier SEBI studies?

• FY22-FY24 study (September 2024). This study is the source of the "93% lose money" headline. The exact figure is 92.8%, and it covers all three years together, not one year. 1.13 crore unique traders lost ₹1.81 lakh crore in total. Loss-makers lost about ₹2 lakh each over the three years. Only 7.2% made a profit.
• FY25 study (July 2025). This study used the top 13 brokers. It found that 91% lost money and the net loss was ₹1,05,603 crore. The FY26 study uses 15 brokers, so it revised the FY25 loss to ₹1,11,788 crore.

One small gap: the FY26 summary gives the FY25 average loss as ₹1.13 lakh, but the chart in the same study shows ₹1.14 lakh. We use the chart figure.

Who loses the most money in F&O?

The trading behaviour study looks at habits, not only results. Much of it uses a random sample of about 5,050 traders, so SEBI calls those results "indicative".

• Very active traders. Traders active on more than 100 days were 42% of traders, but they had 94% of the turnover and 87% of the losses.
• Option buyers. Nearly 97% of traders mostly bought options. About 90% of option buyers lost money.
• Expiry-day trades. About 59% of index options turnover was in contracts that expired the same day (0DTE). This was 70% in FY25.
• Young traders. Traders under 30 were 43% of all traders, and 89% of them lost money.
• Lower incomes. About three in four traders declared income below ₹5 lakh a year. This group had 53% of the losses.
• Losses bigger than wins. 85% of trader-quarters lost money. The median losing quarter lost ₹10,525. The median winning quarter made ₹4,366.

SEBI's own summary is that higher trading intensity went with higher loss rates. Trading intensity means more trading days, more turnover, or more turnover compared to your capital. In plain words: the more people traded, the worse they did. This is the pattern our guide on overtrading covers.

Do traders who keep losing turn it around?

For most, no. This is the hardest finding in the behaviour study.

• Of traders who lost money in both FY24 and FY25 and kept trading, 90.0% lost again in FY26. The figure was 91.6% in FY24 and 92.0% in FY25.
• Experience did not help. About 91% of traders with one year of trading lost money. For traders with four years in a row, it was 96.5%.
• Of traders active in all five years from FY22 to FY26, only 0.5% made money every year. 65.6% lost money every year.
• Big losses did not make people stop. About 88% of traders with past gains or losses above ₹10 lakh kept trading.

The data cannot say why. But "I will win it back" thinking is a known pattern. Our guide on revenge trading explains how it shows up inside a single day.

What changed after SEBI's November 2024 F&O rules?

SEBI's circular of 1 October 2024 set six measures for index derivatives. They started on different dates:

Separately, the government raised the securities transaction tax (STT) on derivatives from 1 October 2024. SEBI says this is why total costs stayed near ₹25,000 crore even though turnover fell.

What happened next, according to the FY26 profitability study:

• Index options traders fell 26.8% between Q2 and Q4 FY25.
• The share of same-day-expiry (0DTE) turnover fell from 70% to 59%.
• Index options premium turnover fell 17% at first. Then it came back strongly, to about ₹82,000 crore a day in the second half of FY26.
• Fewer small traders traded. Traders who stayed traded more, and lost more on average.

SEBI is careful here. It says the findings show "an association in timing rather than evidence of causation".

What does the SEBI study mean for you?

The study describes traders as a group. It does not say what will happen to you. But it does show which habits go with bigger losses. If you trade F&O, these steps can help you see where you stand. This is not investment advice.

1. Know your own numbers. Download your P&L report from your broker for the last 12 months. Check your net result after charges, your number of trading days, and your number of trades.
2. Count your costs. Charges turned many small wins into losses (82.1% lost before costs, 87.7% after). Add up brokerage, STT and other charges for the year.
3. Set a max daily loss before the market opens. Pick a rupee amount you will not go past in one day. Our daily loss limit calculator can help.
4. Size every trade from that limit. Use the position size calculator so one trade cannot take your whole day's limit.
5. Cap your trades per day. The study links more trading with more losses. Choose a number and stop when you reach it.
6. Do not add to a losing option. Buying more to lower your average price can grow a loss fast. See averaging down in options.
7. Use your broker's kill switch on bad days. It blocks new F&O orders for a time. Our kill switch guide for Dhan, Upstox, Zerodha and Groww shows how to set it up.
8. Look at the two-year test. If you lost money in each of the last two years, SEBI's data says about 9 in 10 people like you lost again. It is fair to ask if you should take a long break.

Common questions

See which habits cost you money

The study shows group patterns. TradeGuard AI shows yours. It watches your broker account read-only, flags revenge trades, overtrading and averaging down, and shows the cost of each habit in rupees. Launching soon for Dhan and Upstox.

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Sources

All figures were checked against these documents on 8 October 2026.

1. SEBI, Press release No. 50/2026, 20 August 2026.
2. SEBI DEPA, Profitability of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25–FY26), August 2026.
3. SEBI DEPA, Trading Behaviour of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25–FY26), August 2026.
4. SEBI, Analysis of Profits and Losses in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY22-FY24), September 2024.
5. SEBI, Comparative study of growth in Equity Derivatives Segment vis-à-vis Cash Market after recent measures, July 2025.
6. SEBI, Circular: Measures to strengthen Equity Index Derivatives framework, 1 October 2024.
7. Business Today, ₹91,685 cr lost: 88% of individual traders lost money in FY26, 21 August 2026.