New Delhi, Aug. 24 -- The results of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) latest survey of the country's derivatives market are instructive. The regulator's efforts to deter retail investors from piling up losses have worked, but only up to a point. Sample these findings.

The number of active individual traders in equity futures and options (F&O) fell 18% to under 8.8 million in 2025-26, while new entrants slumped almost 40% to under 2.1 million.

Clearly, the barriers erected by Sebi in the second half of 2024-25-by way of bigger contract sizes, axed calendar-spread benefits and upfront margins-to go with a transaction-tax hike by the Centre have pushed some traders away.

Yet, those who kept trading mostly lost money. In...