Percentage of Day Traders That Make Money

Report Highlight

  • About 40% of day traders stop within a month.
  • Only 13% last beyond three years.
  • A mere 13% earn consistent profits over six months.
  • Just 1% stay profitable over a five-year span.
  • In 2020, 72% faced financial losses.
  • Average investors lag the market index by 1.5% annually.
  • Active traders fall behind by 6.5% each year.

day trader statistics

Average Day Trader Statistics

  • 80% like trading because they can have control over their trades.
  • Low capital needed thanks to broker features.
  • 83% claim trading made them more disciplined.
  • Short-term trades had 14.4% average yearly profit.
  • 1% rule limits trade risk to 1% of account value.
  • Traders use either tight or wide stop-losses for 1% risk.
  • 88% utilize stop-loss orders for risk management.
  • Average risk-to-reward ratio is 1.43:1.
  • 62% employ position sizing for risk control.
  • 70% have a trading plan.
  • 45% trade for 1-2 hours daily.
  • 89% rely on technical analysis.
  • 66% use daily charts for analysis.
  • 71% constantly aim to improve their skills.
  • Stop-loss orders limit potential losses.
  • 90% consistently lose money.
  • Only 1% predicted to be profitable after costs.
  • 72% netted a loss in 2019.
  • Average trader quits after losing for six months.
  • 97% of traders lose consistently.
  • 87% quit within three years.
  • Females earn 43%, males earn 41% on average.
  • Penny stock trading success rate is 1%.
  • Only 17% earn a minimum wage via trading.
  • Average 2015 loss at a firm was €10,900.
  • 50% loss is more likely than 50% gain.
  • Only 3% make consistent profits.
  • Margin users average a return of -4.53%.
  • 85% fail in year one due to poor risk management.

Average Daily Trading Volumes

  • Stocks most traded with $239.8 billion average daily volume in 2021.

Profitability and Success Rates

  • In Brazil, only 1.1% earn more than the minimum wage; 0.5% earn more than a bank teller’s starting salary.
  • Only about 4,000 out of over 450,000 day traders on the Taiwan Stock Exchange were consistently profitable.
  • 64% of US day traders lost money, 36% profited according to one study.
  • Only 19% of Taiwanese traders made positive returns.
  • 97% of Taiwanese traders lost money net of fees on any given day.
  • In Brazil, 1.1% earned above minimum wage, and 0.5% earned more than a bank teller’s initial salary.

Demographics

  • 90% of day traders are male.
  • Average age ranges around 31-40 years.
  • 33% of global traders are Asian.
  • Most day traders have advanced education.
  • 56% of US traders were male in 2007; this shifted to 90% male in recent years.
  • Average age of US day traders: Robinhood says 31 years, Zippia says at least 40.
  • 66.3% of US day traders are white, followed by Hispanic (11.5%), Asian (12.4%), and Black (5.5%).
  • Global online traders: 33% Asian, 16% each from North America and Europe, 14% from Africa.
  • Decline in white US day traders, increase in Asian and Hispanic/Latino traders.

Instruments and Preferences

  • Young traders prefer cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
  • Stocks had a $239.8 billion average daily trading volume in 2021.

Additional Financial Data

  • $5 billion was spent on short-term options, including trading costs, between November 2019 and June 2021.
  • An extra $4.13 billion was paid for trading costs alone.
  • In 2021, 23 million options contracts were leveraged weekly due to meme stocks like GameStop and AMC.

Age and Preferences

  • 75% of traders aged 18 to 34 prefer to trade cryptocurrencies.
  • Nearly 60% of all transactions occur on mobile trading platforms.

Behavioral Patterns

  • Traders performing poorly are most likely to continue trading.
  • 77% of retail investors lose money in Contracts for Differences (CFDs), according to eToro.
  • An average of 1.6% of day traders are profitable in a given year.

Education and Preferred Instruments

  • Over 95% of US day traders are college educated.
  • Young traders prefer cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin.
  • Top trading instruments: Bitcoin, Gold, EUR/USD.

Job Market and Career Stats

  • Annual income can be as high as $116,895; U.S. industry jobs expected to increase to 18,500 by 2028.
  • Male day traders earn around $118,810 a year, while women earn about 10% less ($109,405).
  • 45% of companies hiring day traders have 1,000 to 10,000 employees.

More Day Trading Statistics

  • Median profit for day trading was $13,000 in 2020.
  • One trader made over $100M from Tesla in 2020.
  • Nearly 6.3 billion daily shares traded on NYSE in 2020.
  • Day trading surged in 2020 and 2021.
  • US stock traders rose from 15% to 25% between 2019 and 2021.
  • A Robinhood user bagged $30M in one day in 2021.
  • Winning stocks are sold 50% more often than losers.
  • 60% of sold stocks are winners; 40% are losers.
  • Short-term holders succeed 47% of the time.
  • Long-term holders have a 73% success rate.
  • Breakout strategy success rate is 30%.
  • Trend-following strategy succeeds 20% of the time.
  • 90.5% of US day traders are men; 9.5% are women.
  • UK online traders aged 18-34 make up 65%.
  • Female active traders increased from 27% to 41%.
  • 53% of day traders earn over $100,000 annually.
  • Older traders are declining; younger ones are rising.
  • Most day traders don’t earn a living.