India emerges as the world’s largest options trading hub

India now accounts for roughly 84% of all equity options contracts traded worldwide. A single country, one that was a derivatives afterthought a decade ago, processes more options volume than every other market on the planet combined. At its peak, average daily notional turnover in India’s equity derivatives market hit approximately $5.5 trillion. And the rise happened in about five years, fueled by a potent cocktail of retail enthusiasm, weekly-expiring contracts, and algorithmic trading firms that found the perfect hunting ground. The retail gold rush and its casualties India traded 85 billion options contracts in 2023 alone. Retail investors’ share of derivatives volumes surged from roughly 2% in 2018 to 41%, a twenty-fold jump that turned millions of ordinary Indians into active options speculators. Trading accounts in India expanded more than four times between 2019 and 2024. The catalyst was the introduction of weekly-expiring contracts. Retail traders cumulatively lost around ₹610 billion in FY24. Meanwhile, proprietary trading desks on the other side of those trades pulled in approximately ₹588 billion in gross profit during the same period. Jane Street, the New York-based ...