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The Casino - The Blue Grid Files

The Casino: how India’s F&O machine takes ₹1.81 lakh crore from the crowd

In September 2024, India’s market regulator counted every individual who traded equity derivatives between FY22 and FY24: 1.13 crore people, 92.8% of them losers, ₹1.81 lakh crore gone. Then the machine kept running. This file reads the regulator’s own study, the brokers’ own filings, and the founder’s own confession - fourteen chapters on who collects, and from whom.

14 chaptersEvery number sourced inlinePublished 30 September 2026
Compiled from the public record

The study was not a leak. The profits were not hidden. The founder’s confession is on his own blog. Everything in this file comes from the public record - SEBI’s study and circulars, Registrar of Companies filings, listed brokers’ earnings calls, enforcement orders, and on-the-record reporting by The Hindu, BusinessLine, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, Business Standard, CNBC-TV18 and Entrackr. The only thing new here is that it is all in one place.

92.8%
Of 1.13 crore individual F&O traders lost money, FY22-FY24 (SEBI)
₹1.81L cr
Net retail losses over three years - ~₹2 lakh per losing trader
96-97%
Share of professional profits made by algorithms in FY24
43%
Of the trader base is under 30 - and 93% of them lost in FY24

The chapters

Prologue
The raw material
One crore people sat down at a table the referee had already measured. This file is the measurement.
 Chapter 1
The scoreboard
SEBI counted everyone: 1.13 crore traders, 92.8% losers, ₹1.81 lakh crore gone in three years.
 Chapter 2
The four lakh
Inside the average sits a crater: 4 lakh traders, ₹28 lakh lost each. The worst-hit 3.5%.
 Chapter 3
The one percent
7.2% made any profit. 1% cleared ₹1 lakh in three years. The dream, with arithmetic.
 Chapter 4
The house always wins
Prop desks + ₹33,000 crore, FPIs + ₹28,000 crore, 96-97% of it algorithms. Meet your counterparty.
 Chapter 5
The young and the broke
43% of the base is under 30; 76% earns under ₹5 lakh. The recruitment machine knows who converts.
 Chapter 6
The map of losses
72% from beyond the top 30 cities; four states supply half the table. Where the losses live.
 Chapter 7
The dealer’s cut
₹8,847 crore of revenue at a 48% margin, on ₹47 crore of ads. Zerodha’s own filings, read aloud.
 Chapter 8
The listed dealers
F&O was 77-87% of Angel One’s broking income; Groww tripled profit. The earnings calls confess.
 Chapter 9
The expiry machine
Every day was expiry day somewhere - until October 2024, when the regulator reached into the machine.
 Chapter 10
The tax on hope
STT up 60% the year of the loss study. ~₹14,000 crore a year in tolls, ~₹19,000 per loser.
 Chapter 11
The course sellers
PR Sundar’s ₹6.55 crore settlement: the first audit of the course economy.
 Chapter 12
Baap of Chart
He sold near-certain profits to 4.43 lakh subscribers. His own account: ₹2.9 crore in trading losses.
 Chapter 13
What the house says
“Almost every brokerage business model relies on earnings from active traders who trade options.” - the founder, on his blog.
 Chapter 14
The exits
Orders fell 22% after the tightening - but 75% of losers keep trading after two losing years.
 Epilogue
The lights are on
Every number in this file was already public. The system’s one vulnerability is arithmetic.