SEBI's derivatives challenge

As everyone interested in the equities market would know by now, regulator SEBI has developed a spate of measures in how derivatives trading is done. These measures are designed to... to what? Well, the circular released by the regulator says, "to strengthen the equity index derivatives framework." By itself, that's a say-nothing legalistic kind of statement. However, the context in which these measures have been announced makes the goal quite clear. Let's put it quite bluntly: Individual traders in index options are making massive losses. They are being robbed blindly by the cabal of exchanges, brokers, and large institutional entities conducting automated algorithmic trading. This context is clear from the release of its second report on derivatives trading just a few days ago. The original report famously told us that "89 per cent of the individual traders (i.e., 9 out of 10 individual traders) in the equity F&O segment incurred losses, with an average loss of Rs 1.1 lakh durin