Recently the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the risk of unchecked explosion of future and option trading. Before that, there was a SEBI study, which mentioned that 90 % of the individuals who trade in future and options ( F&O) end up losing money; only 10% are able to make profit. But there is another side to the story. First is that trade volumes in this segment are only going to rise. Second, what is the common between both the losers and winners? They both brokerage to their stock broker and also pay transaction fees to the stock exchange. So, who is the constant and permanent winner? The stock exchange and the stock broker. Yes, policy makers will bring in more checks, but the hard fact is that those checks will only be partially effective for a short period of time as the turnover in the F&O will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. One can control anything, but not the hope and greed on the street.
