Why Do Nearly 9 in 10 Options Traders Lose Money — and Who Wins?
Something remarkable is happening in India's stock market. Millions of ordinary people have been trading futures and options — often called F&O in India. But most of them are not getting rich. On August 20, India's market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI , released new studies examining individual traders in the equity derivatives market. The result was brutal: 87.7% of individual traders lost money. That's nearly 9 out of every 10 traders . And during the fiscal year ending March 2026, individual traders collectively recorded net losses of about: ₹916.85 billion That's roughly: US$9.6 billion. Millions of people trading. Almost nine out of ten losing. Nearly $10 billion in net losses. That raises a very simple question: If so many individual traders are losing money, who is winning? The answer reveals something much bigger about modern financial markets. First: What Is an Option? Options sound complicated. The ba...