No Desire To Wear The Crown For Maximum F&O Trading Volumes: SEBI's Ashwani Bhatia

Although India leads the world in F&O trading volumes, it is a crown that SEBI does not aspire to hold, especially given that 93% of retail investors experience losses in this market segment, said Whole Time Member Ashwani Bhatia.

At the Morningstar Investors Conference, Bhatia stressed the importance of protecting retail savings and discouraged the perception of F&O trading as a "national pastime".

To this end, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has also put forth a series of new regulations aimed at safeguarding investors. These include stricter margin requirements, larger contract sizes, and enhanced upfront premium collections, as well as clearer risk disclosures for retail investors.

In discussions with reporters at the event, Bhatia revealed that many investors have sent him emails and have expressed concerns about the recent increase in F&O contract sizes, suggesting that the threshold be reduced to Rs 5 lakh to make trading more accessible.

While concluding his address, Bhatia further advised the investors that if they are new to investing, they should look at the more stable option, that is, mutual funds rather than F&O trading.