Trade Edge Alpha/Trading statistics
Trading Statistics 2026
The numbers behind retail trading, each one linked to where it came from.
Most trading statistics online are repeated without a source. This page collects the figures that come from regulators, peer-reviewed studies and exchange data, covering day trading, CFDs, options, crypto, prop firms and professional fund managers.
The headline numbers
Most retail traders lose money. That holds across each of the markets below: day traders in Taiwan and Brazil, CFD accounts in the UK, crypto app users worldwide and options traders in the US. Even professional fund managers mostly fail to beat a simple index over the long run.
Day trading
Day trading
statistics
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Brazilians day trading futures 300+ days who lost money (2013–15) | 97% | Chague et al. |
| …who earned more than the minimum wage | 1.1% | Chague et al. |
| …who earned more than a bank teller’s starting pay | 0.5% | Chague et al. |
| Brazilians in profit after a single day of day trading | 29.8% | Chague et al. |
| Taiwanese day traders a year (1992–2006) | ~360,000 | Barber et al. 2014 |
| …profitable after fees in a typical year | ~13% | Barber et al. |
| …predictably profitable after fees | <1% | Barber et al. 2014 |
| Day traders who quit within two years | 76% | Barber et al. 2020 |
| Day traders still trading after three years | 15% | Barber et al. 2020 |
| Day trading volume from traders with a history of losses | ~72% | Barber et al. 2020 |
| Aggregate daily return of day traders after costs | −0.239% | Barber et al. 2020 |
| Accounts losing money at a US day trading firm (1999) | >70% | NASAA |
Full breakdown, with charts: Day trading success rate.
CFDs
CFD and spread
betting statistics
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Retail accounts losing money, UK brokers (20 October 2026) | 55–76.6% | Broker table |
| Median across those brokers | 69.5% | Broker table |
| Retail CFD accounts losing money, EU regulator studies (2018) | 74–89% | ESMA |
| Average loss per retail CFD client, EU (2018) | €1,600–€29,000 | ESMA |
| UK clients losing money in the FCA’s 2016 sample | 82% | FCA CP16/40 |
| Annual retail losses prevented by the 2019 UK rules | £267m–£451m | FCA PS19/18 |
| People a year the rules stop risking more than their stake | ~400,000 | FCA 2025 |
| Lost by 90,000+ people at one finfluencer-promoted firm | ~£75m | FCA 2025 |
Options
Options and
0DTE statistics
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Retail losses per day on 0DTE S&P 500 options (from May 2022) | ~$358,000 | Bloomberg, on Beckmeyer et al. |
| Share of retail S&P 500 option trades that are 0DTE | >75% | Bloomberg, on Beckmeyer et al. |
| 0DTE share of all SPX options volume (Aug 2025, record) | 62.4% | Cboe |
| Retail share of SPX 0DTE volume (Aug 2025, estimate) | ~53% | Cboe |
| Average quoted bid-ask spread on the options retail favours | ~12.6% | Bryzgalova et al. |
| US investors who have bought or sold options | 21% | FINRA Foundation |
Crypto
Crypto trading
statistics
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Retail crypto app users likely to have lost money on bitcoin (2015–22) | 73–81% | BIS WP 1049 |
| Countries covered by that data | 95 | BIS WP 1049 |
| Median app user’s loss by Dec 2022, on $900 invested | $431 | BIS Bulletin 69 |
| UK adults who own crypto (2025) | 8% | FCA |
| …in 2024 | 12% | FCA |
| UK adults aware of crypto (2025) | 91% | FCA |
| US investors who hold crypto (2024) | 27% | FINRA Foundation |
Prop firms
Prop firm
statistics
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Traders who passed a challenge, 10 firms, 300,000+ accounts | 14% | FPFX Tech |
| …who received a payout | 7% | FPFX Tech |
| Funded traders who received a payout | ~45% | FPFX Tech |
| Average payout, as a share of account size | 4% | FPFX Tech |
| Challenge pass rate at The Funded Trader | 5–10% | The Funded Trader |
| All Funded Trader clients who received a payout | 1–2% | The Funded Trader |
Prop firm figures are reported by the firms or their technology providers and have not been independently audited.
Behaviour
Retail investor
behaviour
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Annual return of households that trade most (US, 1991–96) | 11.4% | Barber & Odean 2000 |
| Market return over the same period | 17.9% | Barber & Odean 2000 |
| How much more men trade than women | 45% | Barber & Odean 2001 |
| Annual return lost to trading: men vs women | 2.65 vs 1.72 pts | Barber & Odean 2001 |
| Taiwan individual investors’ trading losses, as a share of GDP | 2.2% | Barber et al. 2009 |
| Average US equity fund investor return, 2025 | 17.16% | DALBAR |
| S&P 500 return, 2025 | 17.88% | DALBAR |
| US investors who have bought a meme stock | 13% | FINRA Foundation |
| …of investors under 35 | 29% | FINRA Foundation |
| US investors who started in the last two years (2024) | 8% | FINRA Foundation |
| US investors who have bought on margin | 10% | FINRA Foundation |
Professionals
Fund managers
vs the index
If professionals struggle, it says a lot about how hard beating the market is. S&P Dow Jones Indices tracks how US active funds do against their benchmarks (SPIVA year-end 2025).
US large-cap funds that underperformed the S&P 500
SPIVA U.S. Scorecard · to 31 December 2025
Six months later the picture was the same: to 30 June 2026, 92.61% of large-cap funds had trailed the S&P 500 over 20 years (SPIVA mid-year 2026).
Markets
Market size
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global FX turnover per day (April 2025) | $9.6 trillion | BIS Triennial |
| …growth since 2022 | +28% | BIS Triennial |
| UK share of global FX trading | 38% | BIS Triennial |
| OTC interest rate derivatives turnover per day | $7.9 trillion | BIS Triennial |
| US equities, average daily volume (2025) | 17.6 billion shares | Cboe |
| …average daily notional value | $1.1 trillion | Cboe |
Regulation
Rules and
regulation
| Rule | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US pattern day trader rule | Scrapped. SEC approval 14 April 2026, effective 4 June 2026; the $25,000 minimum is replaced by intraday margin for accounts over $2,000 | Schwab |
| UK/EU CFD leverage caps | 30:1 major FX, 20:1 minor FX, gold and major indices, 10:1 other commodities, 5:1 shares | ESMA |
| UK crypto derivatives | Banned for retail consumers since January 2021 | FCA |
| Binary options | Banned for retail clients in the UK and EU | ESMA |
| UK loss-rate warning | Brokers must publish the % of retail accounts losing money, recalculated every three months | FCA COBS 22.5 |
Using this page
Sources and
how to cite
Every figure above links to the study, regulator or company report it came from. Where a figure is reported by a company rather than a regulator or peer-reviewed study, we say so. We update this page as new data comes out.
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, “Trading Statistics 2026: 60+ Sourced Facts on Retail Traders”, updated 20 October 2026. https://tradeedgealpha.com/trading-statistics.html
Common questions
FAQ
What percentage of traders lose money?
Most. In the largest studies, 97% of persistent day traders in Brazil and about 87% of day traders in Taiwan in a typical year lost money. At UK CFD brokers, between 55% and 76.6% of retail accounts lose money, and the BIS estimates 73% to 81% of retail crypto app users likely lost money on bitcoin.
What percentage of day traders are successful?
Fewer than 1% of day traders in Taiwan were reliably profitable after fees, and only 1.1% of Brazilians who day traded for more than 300 days earned more than the minimum wage.
Do most fund managers beat the market?
No. To the end of 2025, 92.89% of US large-cap funds had underperformed the S&P 500 over 20 years, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
How many prop firm traders get paid?
Across 300,000+ accounts at 10 prop firms, 14% passed the challenge and 7% received a payout, according to technology provider FPFX Tech. These figures are company-reported.
How big is the forex market?
About $9.6 trillion a day in April 2025, up 28% from 2022, according to the BIS Triennial Survey. The UK accounts for 38% of it.