SEBI F&O study FY26: 87.7% of traders lost money. What the data really says

Every year SEBI studies how individual traders do in futures and options. Every year the headline is grim. In August 2026 SEBI released its latest study, covering FY25 and FY26.

Most news stories stopped at the headline number. But the report has much more in it, and some of it is genuinely useful if you trade. Here is what it says, in plain words, and what you can take from it.

All figures below are from SEBI's study "Profitability of Individual Traders in the Equity Derivatives Segment (FY25 to FY26)", published 20 August 2026 on sebi.gov.in.

The headline numbers

• 87.7% of individual traders lost money in FY26. In FY25 it was 90.9%.
• Total losses were ₹91,685 crore in FY26, down from ₹1.12 lakh crore in FY25.
• The average loss per trader was ₹1.17 lakh, slightly higher than the year before.
• Options caused 92% of all individual losses.
• The number of active traders fell by 18%, from 106.2 lakh to 87.5 lakh.

So fewer people traded, and the share of losers dropped a little. But those who kept trading lost a bit more each, on average.

Finding 1: Losses were bigger than wins

This is the most important number in the whole report, and almost nobody talks about it.

• Traders who lost money lost ₹1.47 lakh on average.
• Traders who made money made ₹1.22 lakh on average.

The average loss was about 21% bigger than the average win. SEBI notes this has been true in every year from FY22 to FY26.

What it means for you: most traders do not lose because they cannot find winning trades. They lose because their losing days are bigger than their winning days. Keeping losses small is the whole game. That is exactly what a daily loss limit is for.

Finding 2: Trading more made it worse

SEBI grouped option traders by how much they traded. The pattern was clear. The share of traders who lost money rose steadily with trading activity, from about 86% for smaller traders to about 95% for the most active ones.

What it means for you: more trades are not more chances to win. For most people they are more chances to lose, plus more charges. See why you can't stop overtrading and the real cost of overtrading.

Finding 3: Experience alone did not help

SEBI compared first-time traders with regular traders who had been trading since earlier years. The share of losers was almost identical: 87.81% for new traders, 87.69% for regular traders.

Regular traders actually lost more on average, about ₹1.36 lakh against ₹59,000 for new traders, because they traded much bigger relative to their savings.

What it means for you: just putting in more years does not make you profitable. Changing how you trade does. We look at this in how long it really takes to become profitable.

Finding 4: Costs took a big bite

Individual traders paid about ₹25,000 crore in transaction costs in FY26, and about ₹1 lakh crore between FY22 and FY26. Brokerage was nearly half of that.

For traders who lost money, transaction costs were 35% of their gross losses. More than a third of what they lost went on the cost of trading, not on the market.

What it means for you: every unplanned trade costs money before it even starts. Check your own number with the overtrading cost calculator.

Finding 5: Expiry day still dominates

In FY26, 59% of index options turnover happened on expiry day itself, and 97% within a week of expiry. Very near-expiry options are cheap and move fast, which makes them feel like a lottery ticket. For most traders they work like one too. More on this in expiry day trading risk.

Finding 6: Young traders lose the most often

Traders under 30 made up 43% of all individual traders in FY26, up from 31% in FY22. And 89% of them lost money, compared with 81% of traders over 60.

So what did the winners do differently?

The report measures outcomes, not habits, so it cannot tell us directly. But the numbers point in one direction. The traders who did better, on average:

• Kept their losses smaller than their wins.
• Traded less, not more.
• Paid less in costs relative to what they made.

None of that needs a secret strategy. It needs discipline: a daily loss limit you respect, a limit on how many trades you take, a pause after losses, and a weekly look at your own data.

Where LossGuardian fits

We built LossGuardian because of numbers like these. It watches your trades on Zerodha, Fyers, Dhan, Upstox, Angel One and Groww, and warns you when you cross the limits you set. That covers your daily loss, your trade count, losing streaks, quick re-entries after a loss and late trades. Then it shows you your own data, so you can see which mistake you repeat most.

It is read-only and never places a trade for you. The aim is simple: help you become one of the traders who keeps losses small, until you do it without any help at all.

The 87.7% is not your destiny. It is just what happens by default. Start with how to become a profitable trader.