SEBI F&O : In the futures and options category, 91 percent or 73 lakh common investors have suffered losses in the last financial year 2023-24. These traders suffered an average net loss of Rs 1.2 lakh per person. This has come to light in a study report released by market regulator SEBI. Apart from this, out of more than one crore individual traders associated with the futures and options category, 93 percent suffered an average loss of about two lakh rupees (including transaction costs) per trader during the three years i.e. from FY 2021-22 to FY 2023-24. The total loss of such traders during this period was more than Rs 1.8 lakh crore. In the financial year 2023-24 itself, there was a net loss of about Rs 75,000 crore.

loss-making deal

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) study found that the top 3.5 percent of loss-makers... about four lakh traders... lost an average of Rs 28 lakh per person during the same period, including transaction costs. On the other hand, only 7.2 percent of individual traders made a profit over the three years and only one percent of individual traders managed to earn a profit of more than Rs 1 lakh after adjusting for transaction costs. Moreover, the number of retail traders or individual traders almost doubled in two years to about 96 lakh in FY 2023-24 from about 51 lakh in 2021-22. However, such investors contributed about 30 percent of the total turnover in FY 2023-24.

Risk of loss

Earlier, SEBI had published a report in January 2023. It found that 89 percent of individual traders in the equity futures and options segment lost their money in FY 2021-22. According to the report, while individuals suffered losses in the futures and options segment, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and financial institutions made profits. Financial entities made a gross profit of about Rs 33,000 crore in the futures and options segment in FY 2023-24. It was followed by FPIs, which made a gross profit of about Rs 28,000 crore. In contrast, individuals and others lost more than Rs 61,000 crore in FY 2023-24 (before accounting for transaction costs). The share of young traders (below 30 years of age) in terms of population increased to 43 percent in FY 2023-24 from 31 percent in the previous financial year. Of these, about 93 percent of young traders suffered losses in the futures and options segment in FY 2023-24.