There are a bunch of oft-cited studies about this.
For example, a comprehensive study of day traders in Taiwan 🇹🇼 revealed that approximately 97% of participants lost money, with only 1% able to consistently achieve profits.
However, that study was published in 2004 and analyzed day traders from 1995 to 1999.
A more recent study, first published in 2019 and revised in 2020: Day Trading for a Living?
That one looked at people who started day trading in the Brazilian 🇧🇷 equity futures market between 2013 and 2015.
It found that 97% of those who persisted for more than 300 days lost money, with only 1.1% earning more than the Brazilian minimum wage.
And the most recent data I could find…
In 2020, eToro reported that 80% of day traders on the platform lost money, with an average loss of 36.3% per year.
But browse YouTube and you’ll find no shortage of successful day traders sharing impressive income reports 🤑
For example…
So it’s clearly possible to earn good money day trading.
But given all the data above, it seems to be a tough career path 😕