What Percentage of Day Traders Make Money? What the Research Says (2026)

Short answer: Very few. Research on real day traders finds that only a small minority earn reliable profits. In Taiwan, less than 1% of day traders could predictably beat a market benchmark after fees between 1992 and 2006. In Brazil, 97% of the people who started day trading mini-index futures in 2013 to 2015 and traded on more than 300 days lost money, and only 8 of those 1,551 (about 0.5%) out-earned a bank teller's starting pay. No study measures "all day traders", so any single percentage you see is a simplification.

Day trading statistics from the research, at a glance

Read the last column before you quote a number from this table.

Why there is no single percentage

A clean "X% of day traders make money" figure would need one population, one cost rule and one market over one time window. No study gives you all four for day traders in general.

Chague et al. begin with 19,646 Brazilians who tried day trading futures, then focus on the 1,551 who kept at it for more than 300 days. Barber et al. count everyone in Taiwan who day traded in a given year. So the two headline studies describe different crowds.

Each study charges different costs against the traders. Chague et al. take out exchange and brokerage fees, but not income tax or the cost of courses and platforms. Barber et al. deduct commissions plus Taiwan's transaction tax, while Garvey & Murphy, working with data from one US broker, deduct only commissions. Income tax is missing from all of them, and Chague et al. say their own figures probably overstate how the traders did.

Of the 1,111 Brazilians who day traded on only one day, 29.8% came out with a net profit. Of the 1,551 who traded on more than 300 days, 3.0% did. The share fell at every step in between (15.5%, 8.9%, 6.8% and 5.4%), so the longer the stay you measure, the worse the result looks. The authors compare the pattern to casino roulette, where a short session can end ahead and a long one rarely does.

Quitting pulls a survey in the opposite direction. In Taiwan, "Learning, Fast or Slow" found that unprofitable day traders are more likely to quit, so a survey of people still trading will overstate how well day trading goes.

The hard numbers come from Brazilian futures and stocks from 2013 onward and from Taiwanese stocks between 1992 and 2006. The US studies cover 1998 to 2000. We found no study that measures US retail stock day traders after 2000.

In the Taiwan data, about 20% of heavier day traders beat the benchmark after fees in a given year, yet less than 1% did it predictably. A one-year window and a test of repeat performance give you very different answers from the same traders.

The Brazil study: 97% of those who kept going lost money

Using data from Brazil's securities regulator (CVM), Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti followed everyone who day traded mini-Ibovespa index futures for the first time from 2013 to 2015. That was 19,646 people. They then looked closely at the 1,551 who day traded on more than 300 days, the people clearly trying to make it work.

Net of exchange and brokerage fees, here is what happened to those 1,551:

• 97% lost money. Only 47 people (3.0%) made a net profit.
• 17 people (1.1%) earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage, about US$16 a day.
• 8 people (about 0.5%) earned more than a bank teller's starting salary, about US$54 a day.
• In the August 2019 working paper, the average result was a loss of US$48.81 a day, and the median a loss of US$23.21.
• The best trader averaged US$310 a day, with a standard deviation of US$2,560.

The versions disagree on one number. The August 2019 working paper (FEA-USP Working Paper No. 2019-47) and a 2020 FGV discussion paper both say 0.4% in their abstracts, yet the 2019 paper's own count is eight people, which is 0.5% of 1,551. The June 13, 2020 version on SSRN corrects its abstract to 0.5%. We use eight of 1,551. We found no journal version, so treat it as a working paper.

The authors say actual performance "is likely to be even worse than what we report below." The August 2019 working paper's abstract opens with a line every course buyer should read: "We show that it is virtually impossible for an individual to day trade for a living, contrary to what course providers claim."

The separate Brazilian stocks study

Chague and Giovannetti published a separate note on stocks in September 2020. Keep it apart from the futures paper. Only 554 of its 98,378 stock day traders kept going for more than 300 sessions, and they averaged a loss of 49 reais a day on a "gross" measure that still subtracts an exchange fee and a fixed 50 reais a day for other costs.

The Taiwan studies: under 1% reliably profitable

Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean studied Taiwan's day traders from 1992 to 2006. In the average year, about 450,000 Taiwanese individuals day traded.

Their 2014 paper tests who beats the market predictably. Its conclusion: "Less than 1% of the day trader population is able to predictably and reliably earn positive abnormal returns net of fees." That is about 4,000 out of 450,000. "Abnormal returns" means returns above what a benchmark would have delivered for the same risk, a stricter test than ending the year green.

The single-year picture looks kinder. Of the 277,000 people who day traded more than NT$600,000 a year (about US$20,000), about 20% earned positive abnormal returns net of fees in a given year. One good year is not unusual. Repeating it is rare.

Skill does exist in this data. The top 500 traders from the prior year earned 61.3 basis points a day before fees and 37.9 after. The bottom-ranked earned minus 11.5 before fees and minus 28.9 after. Look at how much the fees took from both groups.

"Learning, Fast or Slow" and the other 97%

The same team, joined by Ke Zhang, returned to the Taiwan data in "Learning, Fast or Slow", published in the Review of Asset Pricing Studies in 2020. The abstract reports that "the aggregate performance of day traders is negative; 74% of day trading volume is generated by traders with a history of losses; and 97% of day traders are likely to lose money in future day trading."

That 97% is a forecast built from each trader's own track record. It is a different number from the Brazil 97%, which counts people who lost. The December 2018 conference draft explains that the traders who can "predictably earn future profits net of trading costs" are "less than 3% of all day traders each day", so "each day 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading".

Neither 97% is a figure for all day traders.

The US evidence is older and smaller

If you want a US number, you are working with studies from 1998 to 2000. Jordan and Diltz, writing in the Financial Analysts Journal in November 2003, studied a sample of US day traders. Their abstract says "about twice as many day traders lose money as make money" and that about 20% were more than marginally profitable. Chague et al.'s literature review adds the details: 324 day traders from February 1998 to October 1999, with 36% making a profit net of fees. That 36% comes from the review, not the abstract.

Garvey and Murphy looked at 1,386 day traders at one US direct-access broker over 68 trading days, March 8 to June 13, 2000. About half were profitable after paying commissions. It is the most positive result in the studies we reviewed, and it comes from three months at one firm.

"Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth", by Barber and Odean, shows up in many day trading articles, yet it studied 66,465 households at a large discount broker. Do not use it as a day trading statistic.

How many day traders quit

Quitting hides losses. The most reliable quit figure comes from the Taiwan team: the December 2018 draft of "Learning, Fast or Slow" says "more than 75% of all day traders quit within two years". In these papers, a trader counts as having quit after 12 months with no day trades.

You will also see "40% quit within a month, 13% last three years, 7% last five." Among the versions we could read, those figures appear only in the October 2010 working paper "Do Day Traders Rationally Learn About Their Ability?" by Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean, which says "nearly 40% day trade for only one month". The 2017 version (repeated in the 2018 draft) narrowed the sample to traders with at least 10 days of day trading. In that group only 2.5% dropped out within a month, and survival was 44% at one year, 24% at two and 15% at three.

Popular day trading statistics: unsourced or misused

These are the figures you will run into most. Some have no source, and some measure something else.

What the SEC and FINRA say

US regulators warn hard, and none of the SEC or FINRA pages we read gives a loss percentage of its own.

The SEC 1999 investor alert, "Day Trading: Your Dollars at Risk", says "Day traders typically suffer severe financial losses in their first months of trading, and many never graduate to profit-making status." The SEC investor publication of the same name gives you a question for any broker: "Before you start trading with a firm, make sure you know how many clients have lost money and how many have made profits."

Under FINRA Rule 2270, firms that promote day trading must hand you a risk disclosure before opening an account. The standard disclosure says "You should be prepared to lose all of the funds that you use for day trading." It also shows how costs pile up: at $16 a trade and 29 trades a day, "an investor would need to generate an annual profit of $111,360 just to cover commission expenses." That example is 2000-era text still in the rule, so ignore the $16 price and keep the point about frequency.

FINRA's investor page on "Frequent Intraday Trading" adds that "attempting to capture profits in the short term is generally less reliable than investing long-term."

One thing did change in 2026. FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 replaced the pattern day trader rules, including "the $25,000 pattern day trader minimum equity requirement", with intraday margin standards effective June 4, 2026. Firms can phase them in until October 20, 2027. That lowers the entry bar and does nothing to the odds in the studies above. Our explainer on the end of the PDT rule covers the detail.

What these numbers mean if you are starting out

Losers outnumber winners in almost every sample above, and in the Brazil data the people who traded longest were the least likely to show a profit. Here is what to do with that.

Treat costs as your first opponent. The Taiwan fee figures above show how much trading costs take from even the best traders. Every extra trade has to clear that bar.

Cap your risk per trade before you think about profit. Our chatroom page lists the 1-2-3 rule as a common risk guideline: "risk no more than 1% of your account on a single trade. Do not enter without a 2:1 R/R. Stop trading at 3 losses." A rule written down in advance is one you can hold yourself to when a loss tempts you to jump straight back in. Our guide to emotional trading covers that urge. Our beginner's guide to risk management walks through the math.

Practice without money on the line, and judge yourself over months. In the Brazil study, 29.8% of one-day traders showed a profit. One good day tells you almost nothing. On our beginner path you can watch the live stream in full paper-trading mode for as long as you need.

Pick a style that fits your life. If these numbers make you rethink the time frame, compare day trading vs swing trading. If you are weighing a paid course, our comparison of day trading courses lists six questions to ask before you pay.

None of this changes the odds for the average person. It limits what a bad stretch costs you while you learn.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of day traders make money?

It depends on who you count and for how long. In Brazil, 3.0% of people who started day trading futures in 2013 to 2015 and traded on more than 300 days made a net profit, and about 0.5% earned more than a bank teller. In Taiwan from 1992 to 2006, about 20% of heavier day traders beat a benchmark after fees in a single year, but less than 1% did it predictably. No study covers all day traders.

Do 97% of day traders lose money?

Not as a figure for all day traders. The 97% comes from a Brazilian study of 1,551 people who started day trading mini-index futures in 2013 to 2015 and kept going for more than 300 days. Of those, 97% lost money. A separate paper on Taiwan's day traders from 1992 to 2006 says 97% of day traders are likely to lose money in future day trading, which is a forecast from track records rather than a count.

Why do 90% of day traders lose?

We could find no primary source for the 90% figure, and "90% lose 90% in 90 days" is a trading saying. What the studies do show is that fees eat thin edges and very few traders have an edge that lasts. In Taiwan from 1992 to 2006, less than 1% were predictably profitable after fees, and 74% of day trading volume came from traders with a history of losses.

What percentage of day traders make money in the US?

The US data are old. Garvey and Murphy found about half of 1,386 traders at one broker profitable after commissions over three months in 2000. Jordan and Diltz found about twice as many lost money as made money in a 1998 to 1999 sample. We found no study of US retail stock day traders after 2000.

How many day traders quit in the first year?

The Taiwan research, covering 1992 to 2006, gives the best answer. Among traders with at least 10 days of day trading, only 44% were still day trading after one year, in the 2017 and 2018 versions of Barber, Lee, Liu, Odean and Zhang's paper, published in 2020 as "Learning, Fast or Slow". The same team's 2018 draft says more than 75% of all day traders quit within two years. A trader counts as quitting after 12 months with no day trades.

Is the $25,000 day trading rule still in force?

It was replaced. FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 swapped the pattern day trader rules and the $25,000 minimum for intraday margin standards effective June 4, 2026. Brokers have until October 20, 2027 to comply, and your firm might keep the old rules during the transition, so ask your broker which rules apply to you. Our small-account guide covers your options.

Can you make $1,000 a day day trading?

The research gives you no reason to plan on it. The August 2019 version of the Brazil study followed 19,646 first-time day traders of mini-index futures from 2013 to 2015. For the 1,551 who traded on more than 300 days, the average result was a loss of US$48.81 a day. Only 8 beat a bank teller's US$54 a day. Even the single best trader averaged US$310 a day, with a standard deviation of US$2,560. FINRA's standard risk disclosure tells you to be prepared to lose all of the funds you use for day trading.

This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Trading involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all traders.