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Only a handful of traders power India’s F&O volumes, highlights Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath

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Only a handful of traders power India’s F&O volumes, highlights Zerodha's Nithin Kamath
While market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been taking steps to curb speculative trading in the domestic futures & options (F&O) markets, Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath on Wednesday highlighted the highly skewed nature of India’s derivatives market, noting that despite widespread perception, the F&O segment remains relatively small.

Kamath said that in March, only about 30 lakh individuals traded F&O contracts, while across FY26, roughly 20 lakh traded exclusively in derivatives. Even after combining equity and F&O participants, the number rises to just around 64 lakh, a fraction of India’s nearly 13 crore investor base.

He pointed out that only 3.8 crore investors were active across segments, implying that just 30% of investors actually traded, underlining limited participation in the markets.

More importantly, Kamath emphasized that brokerage industry revenues are heavily dependent on a small set of active traders, with a disproportionate share of activity concentrated at the top. Around 60–70% of F&O volumes are generated by just 1–2% of traders, reflecting a sharply imbalanced market structure.

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According to him, the data suggests that while retail participation has expanded, trading intensity—and consequently revenues—are driven by a very narrow base of investors.


“Despite what people think about F&O trading in India and all its problems, it is still a very, very small market compared to almost anything else. In fact, in the month of March, only about 30 lakh people traded an F&O contract. Across FY26 as a whole, only about 20 lakh people traded only in F&O. If you combine people who traded in equities and F&O, that number goes up to roughly 64 lakh. So this is still a very small market. Altogether, out of nearly 13 crore unique investors, only around 3.8 crore investors were active across cash and F&O. That means only about 30% of investors traded anything at all,” Kamath tweeted.
“And yet, the only reason broker revenues have held up is that a small number of people are trading more. Pretty much the entire revenue pool of the broking industry comes from this relatively small pool of traders. If you look at F&O turnover, around 60–70% of trading volumes come from a tiny set of investors, roughly just 1–2%. That is the lopsided structure of the Indian markets,” he added.

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Perseus Mining Limited 2026 Q3 – Results – Earnings Call Presentation (OTCMKTS:PMNXF) 2026-04-22

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OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Seeking Alpha’s transcripts team is responsible for the development of all of our transcript-related projects. We currently publish thousands of quarterly earnings calls per quarter on our site and are continuing to grow and expand our coverage. The purpose of this profile is to allow us to share with our readers new transcript-related developments. Thanks, SA Transcripts Team

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Our commitment for press freedom, and autonomy of public broadcast is absolute: Prakash Javadekar

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Minister of state (independent charge) for information and broadcasting, environment and climate change Prakash Javadekar has been busy sorting out the various hats he’s expected to wear in this government.

He spoke to ET on the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s approach towards media, social media, media controls and much more. Edited excerpts…

In terms of communication and messaging, the BJP’s electoral campaign has been termed an object lesson in the field. How can you translate that into the governmental structure?

All communication needs of the government will be handled in our ministry through a social media hub. I am offering this service to all ministers. Their facebook, twitter and other social media outreach will be handled by the new media wing, and the social media and communication hub.

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The advantage that the party saw in reaching out through all communication media has been tremendous, and it was felt that the government too use the available platforms. Therefore, this new hub will provide all the help needed by various ministers and ministries for setting up and operating their facebook pages, twitter handles and the outreach throughsocial media. Traditional media is important, of course, but social media vehicles have to be spruced up.

What are your priority areas as far as this (I&B) ministry is concerned?