Losing game! How India's small F&O traders carried 70% losses while prop desks made Rs 44,000 crore

In FY26, small Indian traders suffered a staggering seventy percent of the losses in the futures and options market, while proprietary desks and foreign investors thrived with notable profits. Many individual traders faced dire financial setbacks from rapid declines in short-dated options. Meanwhile, institutional players leveraged sophisticated algorithms and trading techniques, exacerbating the inequity in the market landscape.