97% of day traders lose money

[Oshosondy]

I have not seen a huge percentage of people long money up to this before, the highest that I have seen is 85% of traders. But while making research, all traders are including which I think swing traders will be included. This article is about scalpers and day traders. I did not have premium subscription on the site which makes me not to read the December 11 2025 article finish.

What the article is just saying is that trading risk is the same as gambling risk if only 3% of traders are making money while 97% of are losing.

https://medium.com/illumination/97-of-day-traders-lose-money-18e5d89bfe83

Can this be true?

I would have created a poll about this but I know many people on this forum are lying. Some do not even know how to trade but they will speak good of trading like it is a business that someone can make money from.

[Coyster]

The first point to note here is we don't know the metrics the author used to come to the conclusion of the exact percent, 97% in this case. It goes without saying that trading is very risky, particularly scalping + high leverage and it takes a lot of understanding of the market to profit from it.

That said, traders lose money sometimes and profit other times, but on average i agree that they prolly lose more than they profit, due to the risk involved and the unpredictability of the market. Though the 97% thingy can be contested, as it might not be accurate.

[Gozie51]

No doubting it that traders lose money than they profit but to say a 97% is very high. It is high and may not be accurate. Like for instance, what is the parameters for the survey? We have some people who barely traded one week and after blowing up their funds they are off the trading radar. So are those people also called traders? or are they included in the survey?

I believe the rate of profit takers in trading now is growing because of different trading apps and AI that have given more basic knowledge of trading. So I doubt such high percentage even with the loses recorded.

[Hypnotizer]

What the article is just saying is that trading risk is the same as gambling risk if only 3% of traders are making money while 97% of are losing.

I think they might be right, we all know a lot of money that’s lost everyday in trading and most atimes the strategy don’t guarantee profit….its just like gambling as they say or it is even more riskier than gambling.

Can this be true?

For the percentage I think it’s too high but it might be true…they’re lots of unexperienced traders with no proper strategy so the percentage can be real because even the experience ones don’t always get profit and they also lose a lot only the lucky minority gain mostly.

[joniboini]

I don't have a Medium account, so I can't see the full article. That being said, is anyone familiar with the author? It seems like they only have 17 followers, which is minuscule compared to other authors. The number is so big, and the conclusion feels like clickbait. I tend to be skeptical of article like this.

The biggest problem is that the conclusion seems to imply that everyone is trading with the same tools, the same mindset, same control, but only 3% of them makes profit. Reality shows that most traders don't have the skill or control to achieve profit, not necessarily because they're unlucky. It would be helpful if we can view the details and the sample number. The conclusion is meaningless if they only take data from 10 traders, for example.

[Faizan Zen]

When it comes to forex or futures trading, I'm sure many people experience losses. Although the 97% figure is too high. I've tried forex and futures, but it's a nightmare, I've even spent more money trading than gambling. I've given up on forex and futures and will never try again.

[0xredhot]

When it comes to forex or futures trading, I'm sure many people experience losses. Although the 97% figure is too high. I've tried forex and futures, but it's a nightmare, I've even spent more money trading than gambling. I've given up on forex and futures and will never try again.

I do trade stock and crypto futures, if you are low on money it tends to get you, but if you have big bag to trade with and margin is bigger than your longs or shorts you usually survive anything but it is definetely more stressfull than just doing spot. To me futures are like fun game, 10-20% of margin money is usually the best scenario to trade with, I would even say that it can be true that many people loose money trading, it is better to not trade just hodl, and if you really trade then just do futures and close any +% pnl you get hands on, do not wait for 100-200% PnL.

[Wiwo]

Spot trader's may be excluded if I am not mistaken, mostly future trader's yes when you trade in the future market, just know that you are gambling with the price of the assets, and what makes your losing very possible is the fact that every position opened either long or short will definitely have a liquidation price, were you are kicked out of the market and be ready to take your loses.

Crypto speculation is a challenging assessment, and no one can get it right, due to the volatility in the cryptocurrency market. No matter how good your market analysis is, you will still have inaccurate predictions because of the high volatility in the market.

It is very likely that 97% of future traders lose, but the difference between traders lies in their risk management and how experienced they are in recovering from previous losses.

[Hatchy]

I would have created a poll about this but I know many people on this forum are lying. Some do not even know how to trade but they will speak good of trading like it is a business that someone can make money from.

Anyone can believe what they want to believe, I can agree with the fact the 97% of traders are losing money which is fact, and the remaining 3% are profitable. But what I don't agree with is you saying people are lying, they don't have to prove anything to anyone about being profitable because everyone usually gets the idea wrong. Profitability don't mean you can afford expensive lifestyle or luxury cars. People get it wrong that's why theres a lot of doubt when someone tells you he's a trader.. being able to balance your risk to reward ratio makes you profitable.

Lastly trading is not gambling. People just don't understand the difference. Both involve risk, but I can tell you that if you have no knowledge, even the slightest of the market you can't trade. You would only be deceiving yourself on the screen claiming to be a trader.  Any one can gambling, even a child because they don't need to get some skills for gambling, it's just you and your deposit against the casino, with nothing to back you up, every time you take that risk..

In trading if you understand the market, you can confidently take trades because you know what you saw that made you take that trade. It's not just you and your capital in trading, but your knowledge as well. And also, don't have such a mindset that you can't making money from trading. You can if you know what you are doing..

[rat03gopoh]

If they have accurate tools to determine someone's trading timeframe, then that's true. But I think the article doesn't say anything.

Consider this situation: two people with $100 each decide to become day traders and weekly traders. If both have to accept losses, the day trader is the one who loses more frequently, regardless of their trading ability. But when it comes to capital, both are equal.

[hostm]

97% of day traders lose money

If you have a good trading strategy, strong risk management, and a steady mind, you'll be a winner even in day trading. But not your every trade will be successful. If your win rate is over 60%, you can increase your turnover and earn more.

But if you're losing more than you're winning, you need to improve your trading strategy, risk management, and psychology. All three are essential for success.

To develop your psychology, you need to accustom yourself to risk. Start trading with small amounts and gradually increase them.

[Charles-Tim]

If you have a good trading strategy, strong risk management, and a steady mind, you'll be a winner even in day trading. But not your every trade will be successful. If your win rate is over 60%, you can increase your turnover and earn more.

60% winning rate is not accurate enough. A good trader should be able to have up to more than 80% win rate. Traders should not only think of the market going towards their direction, they should also think of the market to first against them and later reverse. Not all time it will reverse but a good trader should be patient.

To develop your psychology, you need to accustom yourself to risk. Start trading with small amounts and gradually increase them.

This is a good point.

[hostm]

Here is how I trade.



When I receive a signal to enter a position, I always try to set a stop-loss to breakeven as quickly as possible. This doesn't always work, but it often does.

I might get knocked out of my position now. But I won't lose a dollar.

This is a test position, so it's very small. Because the short entry limits have now been moved higher, it will most likely close at breakeven.

As I said before the position is closed at breakeven. I haven't lost a cent.

I'm starting to look for a better entry point. Side: short.

[yhiaali3]

I can't speak for others, but I can speak for myself and my personal experience. Perhaps 97% is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not far from reality because the percentage of losers is much higher than the percentage of winners. I can't give the exact percentage, but I'm sure it's over 80%.

Even on a personal trading level, for the individual trader, I've seen from my own experience and observations that the percentage of losing trades is higher than the percentage of winning trades, with the exception of some influencers on Telegram who lie and claim to have 100% winning trades and 0% losses.

[FirmWars]

I could not read all the article because I was asked to create an account or continue to the app meanwhile i don't have the app on my device and I also do not have interest in creating an account there. The article I have read previously also said that more than 90% of day traders lose money, so I can not defend that not to be true, the market can be volatile, making prediction in a short term and expecting that the prediction will go in your favour 8/10 is not possible especially when risk management is not even so easy with so many individuals. Turning up at the market every day to make profit is not favourable to many people, only few but I don't know if the few profitable day traders are more than 3%.

[hostm]

I'm again short Bitcoin.

Now I want to enter a position using pyramiding and a stop-loss at 71,000.

So, I sell 1% for every $500 move up to 70,000 and stop selling there. If the stop-loss is triggered, I lose.

But right now, there's no other way to short the position. Because the big players want to push everyone out of their positions.

I see their limit orders, so that's why I trade like that.

If they drop Bitcoin from the current price down, then I will still have 1% left and will earn at least a little.

But I was right. The price is going up. And my next sell point is 69,000 with 2% of my trading deposit.

If you look at my chart on TradingView, you can see that 70,000 is a very strong resistance level.

I'm also looking at spot limit orders on Binance and Coinbase at 70,000. On Binance, the limit sell is 112 BTC. On Coinbase, it's 44 BTC. These are the ask prices.

But there are also futures on Binance. I see from 69,500 to 70,000, there are ask prices of another 500 BTC. This is a very strong wall that may not be broken this time.

I'm tired fighting with them and want to go to bed. So the stop loss is at 71000 and I'm still short with 1% of my trading deposit because they didn't give me a chance to sell at 69,000.

[BitMaxz]

When it comes to forex or futures trading, I'm sure many people experience losses. Although the 97% figure is too high. I've tried forex and futures, but it's a nightmare, I've even spent more money trading than gambling. I've given up on forex and futures and will never try again.

If you just traded recently and don't have a long journey yet in trading, then that's normal. I think all of us would experience the same thing because most of the newbies having no patience in trading will end up losing, and those who don't have much knowledge of what those high-probability trades are will also end up gambling.
Trading needs experience; those strategies you learn outside must be filtered because I am sure if you don't journal your trades and review them, you will keep repeating the same mistakes. They must be recorded and reviewed because you will experience them again if you stay long. That's why risk management is important to stay long on the market and to avoid unexpected losses. Look at those who are looking for prom firms; some companies are looking for traders to work for them. They only choose those traders with strict rules and conditions, and risk management is a must; you will never be able to pass their test if you don't have it.
Only those who passed can have access to huge capital; traders can make big trades, and these big companies have a 5% maximum loss. If you do beyond that you will end up being removed accessing to the huge funds.

So do you think there are no traders who don't make a profit in trading? Only those who have a negative mindset will end up giving up and telling themselves that trading is a gamble, but for me, it is only if you don't have strict rules and risk management because I already tried many bad decisions in trading, like overtrading, by not using SL and thinking that the price will reverse and make me more profit. Any bad decisions I made on my journey, I removed them. I don't trade daily because if you are forcing yourself to trade daily, then you will end up getting some bad trades.

I'm sure as a newbie you don't have patience; this is the cause why you experience losses.

Those 97% don't have any proof that these people are not profitable. Why does TradingView offer subscriptions? Why are companies looking for traders to work for them?

[Ndabagi01]

What distinct trading from gambling is that in the long run, being consistent in trading tends to make you better and will definitely move from being an unprofitable trader to a profitable one. Day trading and scalping is not enough to actually come to a conclusion that traders and gamblers in the long run are all the same since the percentage of successful traders and gambler are the same and vise versa.

Gambling, no matter how long you have being gambling, you will not get better and best of being profitable. What saves a gambler to keep going is not the knowledge but their risk management in gambling. A trader gets an edge through risk management and also the knowledge of the market they have which in the future turns into profitability for them. It is hard to see a profitable trader going back to being unprofitable again, unless they were never profitable and was luck. But we’ve seen gamblers hit the jackpot and still get poor again because they can’t repeat the big win over again.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Can this be true?

It's possible it can be true, I don't have doubt about it because with my  experience in trading, I can tell that it's not easy, it just have a little different from gambling. With the way I trade, trying to compound my profit while trading without making any withdrawal, so that my profit and capital can at least go between $1k to $5k or more, knowing that the higher the capital, the better profit with just a low leverage, but to hit my target has been very difficult. I'm still on a brake from trading, but so far, the challenges that I have faced in trading makes me think that a whole lot of people are losing money on the market.

[bangjoe]

I have not seen a huge percentage of people long money up to this before, the highest that I have seen is 85% of traders. But while making research, all traders are including which I think swing traders will be included. This article is about scalpers and day traders. I did not have premium subscription on the site which makes me not to read the December 11 2025 article finish.

What the article is just saying is that trading risk is the same as gambling risk if only 3% of traders are making money while 97% of are losing.

https://medium.com/illumination/97-of-day-traders-lose-money-18e5d89bfe83

Can this be true?

I would have created a poll about this but I know many people on this forum are lying. Some do not even know how to trade but they will speak good of trading like it is a business that someone can make money from.

I have always used this data from the previous cycle, until today the data is the same, some say 95%, 98%, 94% all say that traders lose money, perhaps I can conclude that more than 90% of all existing traders, this can be confirmed, I also trade at a loss, of the total I spent on trading capital during the last 3 years, I was not profitable.

Yes they are lying, except for those in the 3%, most traders or trading influencers who make a profit are trading class sellers, and are affiliated with brokers, from there they get their wealth to flex and attract people to trade.