97% of day traders lose money

[ZAINmalik75]

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 also don't have a paid subscription, but it seems correct. Most of the day traders must be losing, but I did not know the percentage would be this high because 97% is really high, and only 3% are making a profit, that's shocking. I tried to search for an accurate report on Google if someone has conducted this research but I could not find one.

Day trading is not easy that's true. Trading is sold to us like, an alternative way with complete freedom to make money while doing anything we want and the report mentioned this too but this is not the reality. The reality is hard.

[justdimin]

There's no one without losses in the market, anyone that tells you he doesn't encounter losses obviously would be lieing to gain attention. You can easily find these kind of people on social media, flaunting their fake life styles that is proudly sponsored by mentoring students all over the world. The market is not a 100% guaranteed money making scheme. There will definitely be a time everything in a setup aligns but that setup would end up in loss. This one is solely not because you aren't good or because you did something wrong. It's just how the market is designed to move. After a certain number of clear price actions you are so opened to losing. It's not escapable, you just have to accept it and move on..

Yeah I agree, but that doesn't mean that we lose money. I mean you could make money from the fact that you are going to lose some trades, but losing some trades doesn't mean you are going to lose money all the time. If you consider year to year, that's why big companies have shareholder meetings year to year and give dividends, because we all know that if you just make money over course of a full year, you could have some bad trades along the way and that won't matter.

If you made money for course of a full year, and had some bad trades that made you lose money, you would be sad and would want better return if those did not happen, but this doesn't mean that you are going to be sad that your entire period was a profit for you.

[savetheFORUM]

Its not exaggerated but it is indeed a fact.

According to a study by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, approximately 97% of 1,600 day traders who persisted for more than 300 days lost money.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/053115/average-rate-return-day-traders.asp

80% of all day traders quit within the first two years.
Among all day traders, nearly 40% day trade for only one month. Within three years, only 13% continue to day trade. After five years, only 7% remain.
Source: https://tradeciety.com/24-statistics-why-most-traders-lose-money

These might be particularly talks about Forex trading but it wont really be that much of difference if we do speak about crypto trading. Its not exaggerated but actually the truth. This is why it is very wrong to think
that learning a trading skills is a simple thing which is definitely the opposite. If you do think up that way then let the reality would slap into your face and made you realize. 

This is not really that uplifting to be fair lol. That doesn't sound like a good deal because of how many people ended up in a loss, but one silver lining in all of this is that it was a small sample size. There is no way we can judge the whole crypto world based on just 1600 Brazilian day traders, there are millions of people all over the world that we have to take a look for these kinds of stuff and that's how we can get better results. Binance holds more data than this, they could clear it up in no time, but if it's bad, then it would not be good for them to share it.

[fuguebtc]

Its not exaggerated but it is indeed a fact.

According to a study by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, approximately 97% of 1,600 day traders who persisted for more than 300 days lost money.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/053115/average-rate-return-day-traders.asp

80% of all day traders quit within the first two years.
Among all day traders, nearly 40% day trade for only one month. Within three years, only 13% continue to day trade. After five years, only 7% remain.
Source: https://tradeciety.com/24-statistics-why-most-traders-lose-money

These might be particularly talks about Forex trading but it wont really be that much of difference if we do speak about crypto trading. Its not exaggerated but actually the truth. This is why it is very wrong to think
that learning a trading skills is a simple thing which is definitely the opposite. If you do think up that way then let the reality would slap into your face and made you realize. 

This is not really that uplifting to be fair lol. That doesn't sound like a good deal because of how many people ended up in a loss, but one silver lining in all of this is that it was a small sample size. There is no way we can judge the whole crypto world based on just 1600 Brazilian day traders, there are millions of people all over the world that we have to take a look for these kinds of stuff and that's how we can get better results. Binance holds more data than this, they could clear it up in no time, but if it's bad, then it would not be good for them to share it.

That's right, we can not judge the entire crypto world based on this small scale survey alone. But this is not the only or the first survey. Numerous surveys have been conducted over the years, and the results have been largely consistent

Another piece of data is that over the years, we have probably heard many stories about people getting rich through crypto. But do you agree with me that they all became rich by holding longterm and almost no one got rich from trading? Therefore, it can be said that this result is likely correct


Exchange know the truth best, but they will not disclose it publicly because if they did, no one would trade anymore and they would lose all their profit

[aoluain]

Its not exaggerated but it is indeed a fact.

According to a study by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, approximately 97% of 1,600 day traders who persisted for more than 300 days lost money.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/053115/average-rate-return-day-traders.asp

80% of all day traders quit within the first two years.
Among all day traders, nearly 40% day trade for only one month. Within three years, only 13% continue to day trade. After five years, only 7% remain.
Source: https://tradeciety.com/24-statistics-why-most-traders-lose-money

These might be particularly talks about Forex trading but it wont really be that much of difference if we do speak about crypto trading. Its not exaggerated but actually the truth. This is why it is very wrong to think
that learning a trading skills is a simple thing which is definitely the opposite. If you do think up that way then let the reality would slap into your face and made you realize. 

This is not really that uplifting to be fair lol. That doesn't sound like a good deal because of how many people ended up in a loss, but one silver lining in all of this is that it was a small sample size. There is no way we can judge the whole crypto world based on just 1600 Brazilian day traders, there are millions of people all over the world that we have to take a look for these kinds of stuff and that's how we can get better results. Binance holds more data than this, they could clear it up in no time, but if it's bad, then it would not be good for them to share it.

That's right, we can not judge the entire crypto world based on this small scale survey alone. But this is not the only or the first survey. Numerous surveys have been conducted over the years, and the results have been largely consistent

Another piece of data is that over the years, we have probably heard many stories about people getting rich through crypto. But do you agree with me that they all became rich by holding longterm and almost no one got rich from trading? Therefore, it can be said that this result is likely correct


Exchange know the truth best, but they will not disclose it publicly because if they did, no one would trade anymore and they would lose all their profit

Thats correct that the surveys have yielded the same results of very high numbers
of people not being profitable at trading.

Back in the years of the ICO's 2017 and 2018 some people made a lot of profit on
those pump and dump scheme's but the vast majority lost out big time.


The thing with crypto trading is anyone is free to engage and everyone who does
believes they can be profitable from the get go. We see it all the time with largely
leveraged trades with unrealistic percentages which inevitably get liquidated.

[vanesha]

Around 2018, when crypto was just gaining popularity, many people called it gambling. If asked why, they would answer that trading is purely speculation. Based on the article you shared, it seems to refer to trading as speculative. Indeed, trading and gambling are not that different. They are both very thin, both involve guesswork, both involve making decisions with risk, both take one step forward without knowing what will happen. However, in reality, some elements of trading remain distinct, such as the existence of coins being traded, the availability of comprehensive data on buying and selling transactions for analysis, and the fundamentals of each project for those who want to delve deeper into the projects they want to buy coins from. These are also some things that exist in trading but not in gambling.

[@ICON$]

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.

YOU'RE RIGHT ✅️

A proper way to present this topic would have been "WHY MANY TRADERS STRUGGLE TO STAY PROFITABLE" OR WHAT KEEPS MANY TRADERS FROM MAKING CONSISTENT MONEY OR PROFIT FROM THE MARKET
 
PLEASE THIS IS MY OPINION AND NOT A FACT 🙂

[BALIK]

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.

If you think 97% is too high and that result is unreliable. Do you have any other reliable data to prove that many trader actually make profits?

I am not claiming this result to be accurate because I have never conducted any such survey myself. But at least it is more reliable than our own baseless assumption and speculation.

In my opinion, most people do not believe that number simply because it contradicts their beliefs, nothing more. By the way, are you one of them, or have you ever met a successful trader?

[Finebone]

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.

It seems like you are still far from reality, because in trading you might be very knowledgeable on how the market moves and still not be profitable, because losing in trading is normal, so being profitable is what almost all traders are gunning for.
The op spoke of 97% but I believe that it's even more because it's only like 2% of traders that are profitable in trading, because traders are just good at lying, they will never admit publicly that they are seriously losing money, it's only when you are very close to them and monitor their trading activities you will get to know that they are no where near as good in the craft as they claimed.
So Gozie51, I will put it to you that the percentage of traders that are not profitable are more than 97% as the op is saying, but greed and the urge to make quick money will not let most of them to stop entirely.

[Adams0001]

Most beginners who are interested in trading nowadays aim to make profits in a short time. They study and try to understand what they should do. But it may not always result in profits. What happens instead is gambling disguised as trading. All they do is guess and try their luck. To be comfortable trading, the process may be long for some beginners. Many of them will not be strong enough to understand and be patient during the process.

That is why they always lose easily because they need fast money and trading need more understanding and experience before you probably succeed in it, and is a risk and you can't just start trading and says you can cashout bug without understanding how the market moves so we need to focus on how he moves before you can probably succeed. Trading is risk and that is why you will see many people are losing in it back to back because is not something that is easy to achieve profit. Some are struggling in trading since from day one but they have not satisfied with there trading they are not enjoying it because there analysis is not going well as they wish. People that are in trading for long as be perfect and not losing frequently as other that are new to it. So I don't believe that 97% of traders frequently lose in trading.

[Youngrebel]

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.

That's quite a very high figure and sounds more like unrealistic.  For a say trader to loose up to that.

I can take maybe 50% to be true becauseof  the nature of volatility of bitcoin.  Atleast you see how the coin rises and drops in price all day so I'm sure that would be less risky compared to trades That take more time like days, weeks and months.

[Issa56]

I agree with both of you. By HODLing, people don't have to feels stress or confuse. They just need to sit down and following their investment plan and set when they will sell Bitcoin.

If you are holding bitcoin, you going to be having peace of mind because no matter how low bitcoin price drops, as long as you can hold, it’s just going to bounce back even if it’s going to take time. If you are investing in bitcoin it’s less stressful than when you are trading. People are making money from trading, but the stress and the risk is just high.

HODLing is the best people can do instead trading. They can focusing their investment and no need to watch the price moves. But we can't say anything if they still want to trade but we should telling them to be careful and prepare for anything.

Most traders do lose money because they don’t even have proper knowledge about trading, most of them don’t care to acquire much knowledge before jumping into it, they just desperate to make money from trading, they think making money from trading is so easy so they just going to jump into it.

Generally I know loss cant be avoided in trading, if you are trading you must lose, but we should make sure that our profits is always more than our loss, but at the end just few people do achieve that, most people’s loss is always more than their profits.

[Joy- maker]

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.

It can be true, but I can't agree with the percentage 97. Because there are traders who are making good money from trading, but they are not much. Assuming the article said that people lose more in trading than they gain from it I could have agreed. But saying only 3 percent of traders are profiting or making money from trading is something I can't concor to, because traders who are making money from trading are more than 3 percent. For me I would say 10 to 20 percent of traders are making good money from trading, while 80 to 90 percent of traders are losing money big time according to my own statistics.

[_act_]

It can be true, but I can't agree with the percentage 97. Because there are traders who are making good money from trading, but they are not much. Assuming the article said that people lose more in trading than they gain from it I could have agreed. But saying only 3 percent of traders are profiting or making money from trading is something I can't concor to, because traders who are making money from trading are more than 3 percent. For me I would say 10 to 20 percent of traders are making good money from trading, while 80 to 90 percent of traders are losing money big time according to my own statistics.

Different reports have different statistics about the percentage of traders that are making profit and the ones that are losing, but one thing the statistics are similar in common is that almost all traders are losing money. The highest percentage of traders that are losing that I have seen before is 15% while this one is the lowest. But new traders that know about the stats will know that trading is highly risky and that they have high chance of losing.

[Dzwaafu11]

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.

Things like do happen to many people, but I must say maybe you enter the trading space for the mind set of making money, not really learning first. You would’ve stick to one whether future or forex trading I believe you will get to know one of them, and you will definitely make money from it.

But obviously you are panicking right now, and I believe if you have the knowledge and everything you need to know before trading you won’t experience loses to the extent you will even think of giving up.

[free-bit.co.in]

Things like do happen to many people, but I must say maybe you enter the trading space for the mind set of making money, not really learning first. You would’ve stick to one whether future or forex trading I believe you will get to know one of them, and you will definitely make money from it.

But obviously you are panicking right now, and I believe if you have the knowledge and everything you need to know before trading you won’t experience loses to the extent you will even think of giving up.

I do not know if he entered the trade with the mindset of making quick money without proper preparation. However, even with thorough preparation, he still had to face consecutive and severe losses. There is nothing wrong with thinking about giving up and staying away from trading. Even if it was the right decision, it would help him avoid even greater losses.

Remember that good knowledge and skill do not guarantee you will make a profit from trading. It only help you increase your chance of winning. Therefore, if you are still experiencing consecutive losses, stopping is the right thing to do.

[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.

It seems like you are still far from reality, because in trading you might be very knowledgeable on how the market moves and still not be profitable, because losing in trading is normal, so being profitable is what almost all traders are gunning for.
The op spoke of 97% but I believe that it's even more because it's only like 2% of traders that are profitable in trading, because traders are just good at lying, they will never admit publicly that they are seriously losing money, it's only when you are very close to them and monitor their trading activities you will get to know that they are no where near as good in the craft as they claimed.
So Gozie51, I will put it to you that the percentage of traders that are not profitable are more than 97% as the op is saying, but greed and the urge to make quick money will not let most of them to stop entirely.

Well there is no point for the debate but I do feel that the percentage of those losing money in trading is quite high and that is the contention. We know that in trading you have traders who never makes profit for withdrawal all their life in trading. There are traders who are not consistent in profit, they lose sometimes and they also profit; while there are consistent profit takers just like perpetual losers. So how is the data going to be put together to know that high number of losers.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

I do not know if he entered the trade with the mindset of making quick money without proper preparation. However, even with thorough preparation, he still had to face consecutive and severe losses. There is nothing wrong with thinking about giving up and staying away from trading. Even if it was the right decision, it would help him avoid even greater losses.

Remember that good knowledge and skill do not guarantee you will make a profit from trading. It only help you increase your chance of winning. Therefore, if you are still experiencing consecutive losses, stopping is the right thing to do.

Yea, that's true, the person can either stop and then go learn more of how to become profitable, they can learn proper risk management or learn a good strategy if that's what's making them unprofitable. So many traders have the reason for their unprofitable trading career, some people lacks risk management, some lacks the psychology to bear losses, so they chase losses until their account is zero, and many other problems that causes them to lose, they should work on fixing those challenges first before going back to trading.

[bhadz]

Well there is no point for the debate but I do feel that the percentage of those losing money in trading is quite high and that is the contention.

That is why the exchanges have got that much volume and from that volume, it can be said that the bigger portion of it comes from the losers.

We know that in trading you have traders who never makes profit for withdrawal all their life in trading. There are traders who are not consistent in profit, they lose sometimes and they also profit; while there are consistent profit takers just like perpetual losers. So how is the data going to be put together to know that high number of losers.

They profit sometimes but they're not reaching the point that they'll think of trading as a life time commitment. They give up too early because they understand that it's not for them. Come what may for those who knows that they have a chance in trading because they're focusing in it, but very few number of people who are really profitable in it. While the rest, losing a bunch of money.

[shinratensei_]

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.

Even the retail deployed AI agents are losing moeny right now. It's just unspoken rule that everything in this world, especially related to money making is always 20% profitable 80% losing like anywhere else.
The top performer will keep making money while the underperformer keep losing money. The market itself was never designed to be a fair 50% winning 50% losing because the top performer can always take it all if they could.