Retail F&O traders lose Rs 1.1 lakh crore in FY25, 41% rise
MUMBAI: Retail investors in India lost nearly Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the equity futures & options (F&O) segment during fiscal 2025 (FY25), a staggering 41% jump from Rs 74,812 crore in FY24 (after accounting for transaction costs). While all the three quarters of FY25 showed rising losses (both at the net and at an average level) among this group of investors, they incurred lower losses during the last quarter of the year.The study also showed no improvement in the percentage of loss-making retail investors during FY25 over FY24, which was constant at about 91%. In other words, out of every 10 retail investors trading in the equity F&O segment, nine lost money.The recent change in F&O trading rules, however, have led to some dip in derivatives volumes, by 9% in premium terms and 29% notional terms compared to FY24. Despite this annual drop, over a two-year period the numbers still showed growth, the study noted.This year’s study was released in the backdrop of a recent Sebi order against Jane Street, a major US-based algo trader that had made total gains of nearly Rs 36,700 crore over 26 months, between Jan 2023 and March 2025, the regulator said on Friday. Part of the gains, nearly Rs 4,850 crore, was alleged to be illegal that Jane Street has been ordered to disgorge.Although early days, there were indications that Sebi’s recent move towards stricter rules for trading in the F&O segment may be showing some results. The quarterly trend in participation and profit/loss outcome of individual traders showed that the number of unique individual traders in the equity F&O segment declined from around 61.4 lakh in Q1FY25 to around 42.7 lakh in Q4FY25. The Sebi’s rule changes were rolled out from Nov 20, 2024 onwards, the study noted.
