How Much Do Retail Traders Lose? The Regulator Data

The hardest official number available: 91% of individual equity-derivatives (F&O) traders in India lost money in FY24-25, with aggregate net losses of Rs 1,05,603 crore (about $12.6 billion), up 41% year over year, according to a 2025 SEBI study. In Europe and the UK, regulators require brokers to disclose that 74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money (ESMA). Wherever regulators force the data into the open, the retail loss rate is high — this page collects the sourced figures into one quotable table.

Read this first. These are official loss statistics, not a sales pitch and not financial advice. Trading is high-risk, most retail participants lose money, and options and CFDs can lose 100% of the capital committed. ClaudeQuantAlgo is a research and education project, not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. Past or reported results never guarantee future outcomes.

The short answer, in one sourced table

"How much do retail traders lose" does not have a single global figure, because most countries do not compel disclosure. But where regulators do force the numbers out — India's derivatives market and Europe's CFD market are the two clearest examples — the loss rate is consistently high. Every figure below names its primary source.

Market & population	Share who lost money	Scale of losses	Period	Source
India — individual equity F&O (options & futures) traders	91% lost money	Net losses Rs 1,05,603 crore (~$12.6B), up 41% YoY; ~9.6 million traders; average per-person loss ~Rs 1.1 lakh	FY24-25	SEBI, 2025
India — individual F&O traders (prior window)	93% lost money	Aggregate losses more than Rs 1.8 lakh crore over three years	FY22-FY24	SEBI, Sep 2024
EU & UK — retail CFD accounts	74-89% lose money	Per-broker range disclosed on every ad and account-opening page	Ongoing regulatory requirement	ESMA

Read the table plainly: across tens of millions of accounts in two of the most-studied retail markets on earth, the large majority lose. This is not a claim about our service or a promise about yours — it is what independent regulators publish.

India: the clearest official dataset in the world

India's market regulator, SEBI, publishes account-level studies of the individual (retail) equity-derivatives segment, which makes it the single richest public dataset on retail outcomes. In its 2025 study covering FY24-25, SEBI reported that 91% of individual F&O traders lost money, that their aggregate net losses reached Rs 1,05,603 crore — roughly $12.6 billion, an approximate USD conversion — and that this total was up 41% year over year (SEBI, 2025). The study counted around 9.6 million individual traders and put the average loss near Rs 1.1 lakh per person (SEBI, 2025).

The prior multi-year window tells the same story. Across FY22 to FY24, SEBI found that 93% of individual F&O traders lost money, with aggregate losses exceeding Rs 1.8 lakh crore over the three years (SEBI, Sep 2024). Two independent windows, the same conclusion: the retail derivatives loss rate sits in the low-90s percent, and the money lost is measured in tens of billions of dollars.

Europe and the UK: the CFD disclosure numbers

You do not need a special report to see the European figure — it is legally required to be printed on the product. Under ESMA rules, every broker offering contracts-for-difference (CFDs) to retail clients must display the share of its own retail accounts that lose money. Those disclosures cluster in a 74% to 89% range across providers (ESMA). CFDs are leveraged derivatives on stocks, indices, forex, and commodities, so this is a close cousin of options and futures risk. We break the CFD and forex angle down separately in forex & CFD loss statistics.

How to read these numbers

A few caveats keep this honest:

"Lost money" is a headcount, not a verdict on skill. The figures count accounts that finished a period net-negative. Some traders quit, some size up, some got unlucky in a single window. The consistency across years and countries, though, is the signal.
Definitions differ by regulator. SEBI's studies focus on the individual equity-derivatives segment; ESMA's disclosure covers retail CFD accounts. They are not identical products, so treat the table as a set of comparable-but-distinct official readings, not one apples-to-apples metric.
The USD figure is an approximation. Rs 1,05,603 crore is the primary SEBI number; the ~$12.6 billion is a rounded conversion for context and moves with exchange rates.
Aggregate losses include broker fees and taxes. Part of what retail loses is transaction cost, which compounds against frequent traders even before market direction.

We hold ourselves to the same standard. If most retail loses, any honest signal service should show its own drawdowns instead of a highlight reel. We publish a hypothetical, simulated backtest of raw momentum signals that lost money — 161 simulated trades, a 46.6% win rate, and a 0.82 profit factor (all labeled hypothetical) — on our public record, and we keep real losing trades on the public scoreboard. See the honest version at signals, or join the free tier of the Discord (public scoreboard, daily watchlist, Academy fundamentals — no card required).

Sources & method

This page aggregates primary regulatory data only; it does not model or re-estimate anything.

India, FY24-25: 91% loss rate, Rs 1,05,603 crore aggregate net loss (~$12.6B, +41% YoY), ~9.6M traders, ~Rs 1.1 lakh average per-person loss — SEBI study, 2025.
India, FY22-FY24: 93% loss rate, aggregate losses greater than Rs 1.8 lakh crore over three years — SEBI, September 2024.
EU & UK CFDs: 74-89% of retail accounts lose money — ESMA (figures individual brokers are required to disclose).

Figures are quoted as the regulators reported them for the stated periods. Loss rates are historical and specific to those markets and windows; they are not a forecast for any individual trader or any other market. For the mechanisms behind these numbers, read why most traders lose money and what percentage of day traders are profitable.

Common questions

how much do retail traders lose

It depends on the market, but the official numbers are stark. In India, 91% of individual equity-derivatives (F&O) traders lost money in FY24-25, with aggregate net losses of Rs 1,05,603 crore (~$12.6B) and an average loss near Rs 1.1 lakh per person (SEBI, 2025). In the EU and UK, brokers must disclose that 74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money (ESMA).

What percentage of retail traders lose money?

Where regulators require disclosure, it is a large majority. SEBI found 91% of individual F&O traders in India lost money in FY24-25 and 93% across FY22-FY24 (SEBI, 2025 and Sep 2024), and ESMA-mandated disclosures show 74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose (ESMA).

How much money did retail traders lose in India?

SEBI reported aggregate net losses of Rs 1,05,603 crore (about $12.6 billion) for individual F&O traders in FY24-25 — up 41% year over year — across roughly 9.6 million traders (SEBI, 2025). Over the earlier FY22-FY24 window, aggregate losses exceeded Rs 1.8 lakh crore (SEBI, Sep 2024).

Why do regulators publish retail trading loss data?

Investor-protection mandates. SEBI runs account-level studies of the derivatives segment, and ESMA requires every CFD broker to display the share of its retail accounts that lose money so customers see the odds before they trade. The effect is that in markets with forced disclosure, the high loss rate is on the public record.

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Last updated 2026-07-15 · ClaudeQuantAlgo Research Desk · research and education only.

Disclosures. ClaudeQuantAlgo is a research and education community. Nothing on this page constitutes financial, investment, legal, or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or derivative. No profit promises are made, ever — trading stocks, options, and forex involves substantial risk of loss; options positions can lose 100% of their value. The public scoreboard reflects a model ("paper") desk — no real money. Past performance — real, paper, or simulated — never guarantees future results. Hypothetical and simulated results have inherent limitations and no representation is made that any account will or is likely to achieve similar profits or losses. ClaudeQuantAlgo is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. You are solely responsible for your own trading decisions. Never risk money you cannot afford to lose.