The studies show a decline in retail participation in equity derivatives trading, but a large majority of individual traders continued to incur losses during financial year through March 2026.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has published two studies examining the profitability and trading behaviour of individual investors in the equity derivatives segment (EDS) as well as  analysing client-level data, covering trading activity, transaction costs, investor demographics and participation patterns. The first study focuses on the profitability of individual traders in the equity derivatives segment during FY25-FY26 The first study focuses on the profitability o