Retail participation in equity derivatives took a step back in FY26 after years of rapid expansion, with the number of active individual traders falling 18% year-on-year to around 88 lakh, according to SEBI's latest study on the profitability of individual traders in the equity derivatives segment.
The decline marks the first annual reversal in the number of individual traders in the segment in more than a decade. The active trader base had expanded from around 7 lakh in FY15 to more than 1 crore in FY25, with growth accelerating sharply after FY21.
