Trade Edge Alpha/Trading statistics/Day trading success rate
Day Trading Success Rate
What percentage of day traders actually make money? The biggest studies give a clear answer.
Most numbers quoted about day trading have no source. This page uses only the published research: complete trade records from Taiwan and Brazil covering hundreds of thousands of day traders, US regulator data, and the newest rule changes.
Short answer
Very few. In two of the largest studies of day traders, 97% of Brazilians who day traded for more than 300 days lost money, and fewer than 1% of Taiwanese day traders were reliably profitable after fees. In a typical year only about 13% of day traders in Taiwan made any profit at all, and more than three quarters quit within two years.
$2,000
is the new US minimum for intraday margin, after the $25,000 pattern day trader rule was scrapped in 2026
The evidence
The studies
at a glance
| Study | Market and years | Sample | Finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chague, De-Losso & Giovannetti | Brazil, mini-Ibovespa futures, 2013–2015 | 19,646 new day traders; 1,551 traded 300+ days | 97% of the 300+ day group lost money; 1.1% earned more than the minimum wage |
| Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean (2014) | Taiwan Stock Exchange, 1992–2006 | Every trade by every investor; ~360,000 day traders a year | Fewer than 1% (about 1,000) predictably profitable after fees |
| Barber, Lee, Liu, Odean & Zhang (2020) | Taiwan, 1992–2006 | All day traders with 10+ days | 76% quit within two years; aggregate return −0.239% a day after costs |
| Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean (2009) | Taiwan, 1995–1999 | All individual investors | Individuals’ trading losses equalled 2.2% of Taiwan’s GDP |
| NASAA (1999) | US, one Massachusetts day trading firm | Firm account records | More than 70% of accounts lost money; about 12% showed potential to be profitable |
Brazil
The 97% study
Researchers in Brazil tracked every person who started day trading mini-index futures in Brazil between 2013 and 2015: 19,646 people. They then looked at the 1,551 who kept going for more than 300 days, the people you would expect to have figured it out.
97% of them lost money. Only 17 people, 1.1%, earned more than Brazil’s minimum wage (about US$16 a day), and only 8, around 0.5%, earned more than the starting salary of a bank teller (about US$54 a day). The best performer averaged US$310 a day, with enormous swings.
The striking part is what happened with time. The longer people stuck at it, the less likely they were to be in profit.
Share of Brazilian day traders in profit, by how long they traded
Chague, De-Losso & Giovannetti · mini-Ibovespa futures · 2013–2015
The authors’ conclusion: it is virtually impossible for an individual to day trade for a living.
Taiwan
360,000 day
traders a year
Taiwan is the best data set in the world for this question. US and Taiwanese researchers had the complete trading record of every investor on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1992 to 2006. In an average year, about 360,000 individuals day traded.
Only about 13% made a profit after fees in a typical year, which means 87% lost money. Making a profit once is not the same as being good: after ranking traders by their past results, fewer than 1%, roughly 1,000 of 360,000, were able to beat the market reliably after fees (Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean, 2014).
That small group was genuinely skilled. The top 500 traders earned about 0.28% a day after fees on their day trades. Day traders as a whole lost about 0.24% a day after costs, and the group lost money in every year studied (Barber et al., 2020).
Survival
How long day
traders last
Most people stop. Counting from the point someone had day traded on at least ten days, the Taiwan data shows how many were still going later on (Barber et al., 2020).
Share of day traders still trading
Taiwan · 1992–2006 · Barber, Lee, Liu, Odean & Zhang (2020)
But the people who stayed were not the winners. Traders with at least 50 days of experience who were losing money had a 95.3% chance of day trading again in the next 12 months, almost the same as profitable traders at 96.4%. Traders with 10 or more days of experience and a history of losses generated about 72% of all day trading volume.
In other words, losing does not make most people stop, and the market is mostly made up of people who have already lost.
Costs
Where the
money goes
Looking at all individual investors in Taiwan from 1995 to 1999, their combined trading losses were equal to 2.2% of Taiwan’s GDP and 2.8% of total personal income. Their portfolio trailed the market by 3.8 percentage points a year (Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean, 2009).
What individual investors’ losses were made of
Taiwan · 1995–1999 · share of total losses
Two thirds of the damage was costs. A strategy has to clear its fees before it can make anything, and high-frequency retail trading usually does not.
United States
The US data and the
$25,000 rule
There is far less public US data. The most quoted figure comes from NASAA, the association of North American state securities regulators, in 1999, at the height of the dot-com day trading boom. Reviewing one Massachusetts day trading firm’s accounts, it found that more than 70% lost money and only about 12% showed the potential to be profitable (NASAA, 1999).
The rule most US traders know is changing. On 14 April 2026 the SEC approved scrapping the pattern day trader rule and its $25,000 minimum. Margin accounts with more than $2,000 can now get intraday buying power, set by each broker from current positions. The change took effect on 4 June 2026 and brokers have until 20 October 2027 to adopt it (Schwab, citing the SEC and FINRA).
Cheaper access is not the same as better odds. Both the Brazilian data and the US brokerage studies below found that the more people traded, the worse they did.
Behaviour
Overtrading and
overconfidence
The same pattern shows up in ordinary brokerage accounts. Among 66,465 US households from 1991 to 1996, the fifth that traded most earned 11.4% a year while the market returned 17.9%. The average household earned 16.4% (Barber & Odean, 2000).
Men traded 45% more than women, and trading cut men’s net returns by 2.65 percentage points a year against 1.72 for women (Barber & Odean, 2001).
What it means
What the numbers
actually say
Day trading is not impossible, and a small group in every study made real money. But the base rate is brutal: in the large day trading studies 87% to 97% lose, most quit, and the ones who keep going are mostly losing too.
If you trade anyway, the numbers point to the same few things: trade less, keep costs low, and test a rule set before you risk money on it. That is how we approach our own strategies, such as the ORB second break, where every backtest is published with its full trade list, losing runs included.
Using these figures?
You are welcome to quote any number on this page. Please credit the original study or regulator, and link to this page as the source of the compilation.
Trade Edge Alpha, “Day Trading Success Rate: What the Studies Show (2026)”, updated 20 October 2026. https://tradeedgealpha.com/day-trading-success-rate.html
Sources
- Chague, F., De-Losso, R. and Giovannetti, B., “Day Trading for a Living?”, FGV EESP working paper. https://ideas.repec.org/p/fgv/eesptd/525.html
- Barber, B., Lee, Y-T., Liu, Y-J. and Odean, T. (2014), “The cross-section of speculator skill: Evidence from day trading”, Journal of Financial Markets 18, 1–24. https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finmar/v18y2014icp1-24.html; working paper: Berkeley PDF
- Barber, B., Lee, Y-T., Liu, Y-J., Odean, T. and Zhang, K. (2020), “Learning, Fast or Slow”, Review of Asset Pricing Studies 10(1), 61–93. https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rasset/v10y2020i1p61-93..html
- Barber, B., Lee, Y-T., Liu, Y-J. and Odean, T. (2009), “Just How Much Do Individual Investors Lose by Trading?”, Review of Financial Studies 22(2), 609–632. https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v22y2009i2p609-632.html
- Barber, B. and Odean, T. (2000), “Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth”, Journal of Finance 55(2). Berkeley PDF
- Barber, B. and Odean, T. (2001), “Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment”, Quarterly Journal of Economics 116(1), 261–292. https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/qjecon/v116y2001i1p261-292..html
- NASAA, testimony on the practices and operations of the day trading industry, September 1999. https://www.nasaa.org/907/the-practices-and-operations-of-the-day-trading-industry/
- Charles Schwab, “SEC Approves Scrapping $25,000 Day Trader Minimum”, 2026. https://international.schwab.com/story/sec-approves-scrapping-25000-day-trader-minimum
Common questions
FAQ
What percentage of day traders make money?
In the largest study, of every day trader in Taiwan from 1992 to 2006, about 13% made a profit after fees in a typical year, and fewer than 1% were reliably profitable year after year. In Brazil, 97% of people who day traded futures for more than 300 days lost money.
What percentage of day traders lose money?
Roughly 87% in a typical year in Taiwan, 97% of persistent day traders in Brazil, and more than 70% of accounts at a US day trading firm reviewed in 1999. Across UK CFD brokers, between 55% and 76.6% of retail accounts lose money.
Can you day trade for a living?
Very few people can. In Brazil only 1.1% of people who day traded for more than 300 days earned more than the minimum wage, and 0.5% earned more than a bank teller’s starting salary. The study’s authors concluded it is virtually impossible to day trade for a living.
How long do most day traders last?
In Taiwan, 44% were still day trading after one year, 24% after two years and 15% after three years. More than three quarters quit within two years.
Do you still need $25,000 to day trade in the US?
No. The SEC approved removing the pattern day trader rule on 14 April 2026, effective 4 June 2026. Margin accounts with more than $2,000 can get intraday buying power, and brokers have until 20 October 2027 to implement the change.
Why do most day traders lose money?
Mostly costs and overtrading. In Taiwan, commissions and transaction taxes made up two thirds of individual investors’ losses. Studies also find that the investors who trade most earn the least, and that losing traders keep trading at almost the same rate as winners.