Do 90% of Day Traders Lose Money?

[josephhawkins 10]

Hey,

I started "day trading" with $40 000 CAD 3 weeks ago. I am up to $46 500 which represents an increase of a little more than 15% overall. Note that I am limited to 1-2 trades a week (since I have to wait 3 days for my funds to become available). But after reading many specialists say 90% of traders lose money, I am under the impression that this is just the luck of the beginner and that I will eventually lose all my profits in the near future.

So am I doing something right or is this just the luck of the beginner?

PS: I do not make random trades so I am not gambling. I usually hold a few hours but sometimes will keep 1-2 days.

[MightyMouse 12]

Hey,

I started "day trading" with $40 000 CAD 3 weeks ago. I am up to $46 500 which represents an increase of a little more than 15% overall. Note that I am limited to 1-2 trades a week (since I have to wait 3 days for my funds to become available). But after reading many specialists say 90% of traders lose money, I am under the impression that this is just the luck of the beginner and that I will eventually lose all my profits in the near future.

So am I doing something right or is this just the luck of the beginner?

PS: I do not make random trades so I am not gambling. I usually hold a few hours but sometimes will keep 1-2 days.

 

15% is great. No one knows what will happen next and we can all debate what just happened. Expect to have losing days, weeks, months, and years in your trading career.

 

40k is a low amount to trade with. With a 15% gain in a few weeks, I suspect you are taking on a bit too much risk for your account size if that is all the funds you have to commit to trading. If you have a lot more funds than 40k, then that is a different story.

[jpennybags 11]

Hey,

I started "day trading" with $40 000 CAD 3 weeks ago. I am up to $46 500 which represents an increase of a little more than 15% overall. Note that I am limited to 1-2 trades a week (since I have to wait 3 days for my funds to become available). But after reading many specialists say 90% of traders lose money, I am under the impression that this is just the luck of the beginner and that I will eventually lose all my profits in the near future.

So am I doing something right or is this just the luck of the beginner?

PS: I do not make random trades so I am not gambling. I usually hold a few hours but sometimes will keep 1-2 days.

 

First... what you are doing doesn't fit the definition of "day trading". Second... over such a small sampling size, there is no way to gauge your performance... it may just be dumb luck. I would almost venture that you may have not seen a losing trade... certainly not a series of losing trades. The one thing you have in your favor right now is that you've managed to credit your account with $6500 (good for you). Imagine how it would feel if it were reversed, and you were trying to dig out of that hole.

 

Speaking from personal experience, the most difficult aspect of trading for a living is getting over the hump of being a break-even trader. This can be a slog at times, but that's what you've signed up for... it may take a while.

 

I amuse myself... "digging out of that hole". My bad... stop digging, start filling...

Edited September 25, 2015 by jpennybags

[Arms race 10]

Hey,

I started "day trading" with $40 000 CAD 3 weeks ago. I am up to $46 500 which represents an increase of a little more than 15% overall. Note that I am limited to 1-2 trades a week (since I have to wait 3 days for my funds to become available). But after reading many specialists say 90% of traders lose money, I am under the impression that this is just the luck of the beginner and that I will eventually lose all my profits in the near future.

So am I doing something right or is this just the luck of the beginner?

PS: I do not make random trades so I am not gambling. I usually hold a few hours but sometimes will keep 1-2 days.

 

From what I recall, a Taiwanese (?) study who followed the performance of >1,000 day traders for over a decade, came to the gruelling conclusion, that 99,7% of all day traders lose money in the long run. The remaining 0,3% made 5% p.a. on average, with a tiny subset of these making the high double digit returns almost every other trader on the internet seems to pull before breakfast or hopes to pull in the very near future, lol.

 

On this basis I'd urge you to find a better place for your money.

[pinkpips 10]

Very impressive...

 

I recommend withdrawing your profits so you realize them!!

[Edward J. Webb 10]

Unfortunately yes. But this fact shouldn't affect your intention to learn this profession.

[nakachalet 10]

From what I recall, a Taiwanese (?) study who followed the performance of >1,000 day traders for over a decade, came to the gruelling conclusion, that 99,7% of all day traders lose money in the long run. The remaining 0,3% made 5% p.a. on average, with a tiny subset of these making the high double digit returns almost every other trader on the internet seems to pull before breakfast or hopes to pull in the very near future, lol.

 

On this basis I'd urge you to find a better place for your money.

 

....a Taiwanese (?) study....

 

can you provide that source, pls?

 

thx

 

nakachalet@gmail.com

[jeriko 0]

Hello, I want to share my personal experience in trading since I started last year with a very little knowledge, I trade mainly on crypto trading platforms as I am very interested in the philosophy behind btc and open source blockchain. With time I got interested to try to trade and started to try to, I bought, waited a little bit sold for little gain, bought again BUT i didn't know about simple instruments and advanced order types. So basically my first trades were at a loss. 

After I gained a little bit more knowledge I learned about leverage when I started trading on Bitmex and later on Primexbt, boy it was more exiting but this was the time when emotions during trading took over me and made a loss, got liquidated few times because I didn't know how to properly use my stop loss or completely forgot about it. Lately I am much better but this comes after making mistakes for almost one year. Have in mind that i didn't had much time to focus on this because I was working other job all day. 

So in conclusion my first trades in the first few months were utterly failures. I can say that this happens because of lack of education or prior experience, but at the moment I am happy as thanks to this I learned about market cycles/trends, leverage trading, stop-loss, advance order types like OCO etc..., learned what correlates and what does not. Learned about rising and falling wedges etc... All comes down to one thing: education and experience.

But yes first comes loses and knowledge, later some profits

[zuinjimi 0]

I am coming across this question for the second time. The first time, I had thought of passing it. But the subject of trading, especially profitable trading being dear to my heart, I had to come back to answer it.

First things first. You have done well to get 30% profit as you have stated. I hope you are still maintaining profitability though would not be surprised if the profit is gone.

Now coming to your question— The answer is YES.

One or two percentage points more or less do not matter. It is a fact that winning traders are far fewer than losing traders.

And this has been emphasized in most of the answers.