Day Trading Statistics Updated November 2026

Human Written & Fact Checked · Updated

229 Day Trading Statistics for 2026

No single number says how many day traders lose money. Each study counts a different market, instrument and group of people. In Taiwan, less than 1% of day traders were reliably profitable over 1992-2006. In India, 87.7% of individual equity derivatives traders made net losses in FY26. In the EU, national regulators found that 74-89% of retail CFD accounts typically lose money.

This page gathers the figures from academic studies, regulators, brokers' own disclosures and surveys: stock day traders in Taiwan and India, futures traders in Brazil, retail CFD accounts, forex turnover, options and 0DTE volume, the US pattern day trader rule and its replacement in 2026, retail brokers' activity, who invests, crypto and investment scams. Every figure links to the body that published it, with the date.

The sources measure different things. Academic studies follow exchange or broker records, regulators study their own markets, and a broker's loss percentage describes only that firm's clients. We name the producer, country, instrument, period and population of every figure and never average or add them. Nothing here is trading or investment advice.

Headline figures

  • Less than 1% of day traders on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, about 4,000 of about 450,000 in the average year, predictably and reliably earned positive abnormal returns net of fees over 1992-2006, a peer-reviewed study of all individual day traders there found. (Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean (Journal of Financial Markets, 2014), Mar 2014)
  • In Brazil, 97% of individuals who began day trading in the equity futures market between 2013 and 2015 and persisted for more than 300 days lost money, according to the abstract of a 2020 working paper. (Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti (2020 working paper), 2020)
  • 87.7% of individual traders in India's equity derivatives segment (futures and options) made net losses in FY26 (April 2025 to March 2026), a study by the securities regulator SEBI found. (SEBI (derivatives profitability study, FY26), Aug 2026)
  • 71% of individual intraday (day) traders in India's equity cash segment made net losses in FY23 (April 2022 to March 2023), SEBI found. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • National regulators' analyses found that 74-89% of retail CFD accounts in the EU typically lose money, the EU markets regulator ESMA said in 2018. (ESMA (CFD measures press release), Mar 2018)
  • A Financial Conduct Authority analysis of a representative sample of client accounts at UK CFD firms found that 82% of clients lost money on CFD products, the regulator said in 2016. (FCA (CFD rules press release), Dec 2016)
  • In Australia, 68% of retail CFD clients lost money in the 2023-24 financial year, 133,674 people, on the regulator ASIC's data. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • Ten US broker-dealers, estimated to hold over 85% of pattern day trader accounts, identified about 1.3 million customers designated as pattern day traders as of 17 January 2025, FINRA reported. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • The SEC approved on 14 April 2026 a FINRA rule change that replaces the US day trading margin requirements, including the pattern day trader designation and the $25,000 minimum equity requirement. (FINRA (Regulatory Notice 26-10), Apr 2026)
  • Total US listed options volume topped 15.2 billion contracts in 2025, 26% above 2024, which Cboe calls the previous record; on average 61 million contracts traded daily, on Cboe's market analysis. (Cboe (State of the Options Industry 2025), Jan 2026)
  • S&P 500 index (SPX) options with zero days to expiry (0DTE) averaged a record 2.3 million contracts a day in 2025 on Cboe's own exchange data, 59% of total SPX options volume. (Cboe (2025 trading volume release), Jan 2026)
  • Robinhood customers traded 905 million options contracts in the third quarter of 2026, up 48% on a year earlier, a record on the company's own figures. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Global over-the-counter foreign exchange turnover averaged $9.5 trillion per day in April 2025, up 27% from 2022, on the Bank for International Settlements' final Triennial Survey figure. (BIS (Quarterly Review, Dec 2025), Dec 2025)
  • US consumers reported losing $7.9 billion to investment scams in 2025, the most of any category, out of $15.9 billion of reported fraud losses, the Federal Trade Commission said. (FTC (2025 fraud testimony release), Mar 2026)

How many day traders make money?

Very few, in the markets where researchers have counted every trader. The fullest academic record covers all individual day traders on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1992 to 2006, and a working paper covers persistent futures day traders in Brazil. Neither is a figure for day traders everywhere.

Taiwan and Brazil are separate academic studies of different markets, instruments and periods. They are not regulator or broker figures and are not combined with them anywhere on this page. The Taiwan figures cover 1992-2006 and are not US figures.

What did the Brazilian futures study find?

Only the abstract of the 2020 working paper was checked. Its population is individuals who began day trading in the Brazilian equity futures market between 2013 and 2015 and persisted for more than 300 days, not all day traders.

How long do day traders keep trading?

Most stop quickly. A working paper on the Taiwan Stock Exchange record found that most day traders quit within two years, and that unprofitable traders did most of the day trading.

44% After 1 year 24% After 2 years 15% After 3 years
View data table
Share of Taiwan day traders with at least 10 days of day trading who were still day trading after one, two and three years, 1992-2006.
PeriodValue
After 1 year44%
After 2 years24%
After 3 years15%
Share of Taiwan day traders with at least 10 days of day trading who were still day trading after one, two and three years, 1992-2006. (Barber, Lee, Liu, Odean and Zhang (2017 working paper), Oct 2017)

These figures come from the October 2017 working paper version; the study was later published in a journal and the published numbers may differ slightly. Its share of volume covers 1995-2006 on a different definition from the 1992-2006 share in the 2014 paper, so the two are not compared.

Do stock day traders in India lose money?

Most do, and the share has risen. India's securities regulator SEBI studied individuals who buy and sell shares within the day and found that about seven in ten made net losses, with very frequent traders and younger traders doing worse.

65% FY19 69% FY22 71% FY23
View data table
Share of individual intraday traders in India's equity cash segment who made net losses, for the three financial years SEBI reports.
PeriodValue
FY1965%
FY2269%
FY2371%
Share of individual intraday traders in India's equity cash segment who made net losses, for the three financial years SEBI reports. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • Among Indian intraday traders, the share of loss-makers rose to 80% for those with very frequent trading activity, meaning more than 500 intraday trades a year. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • 76% of Indian intraday traders aged under 30 were loss-makers in FY23. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • Even after three years of experience, 54% of Indian intraday traders were loss-makers in FY23. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • Trading costs added 57% to the trading losses of loss-making intraday traders in India in FY23. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • The number of individuals trading intraday in India's equity cash segment rose from about 15 lakh (1.5 million) in FY19 to 69 lakh (6.9 million) in FY23. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • About 1 in 3 individuals who trade in India's equity cash segment trades intraday. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)
  • Traders aged under 30 made up 48% of Indian intraday traders in FY23, up from 18% in FY19. (SEBI (intraday trading study), Jul 2024)

India's financial years run from April to March. These are individuals trading shares within the day in the cash market, a different group from the derivatives traders in the next section.

How many futures and options traders in India lose money?

Close to nine in ten in each of the last three financial years. SEBI's studies of individual traders in equity derivatives show the loss-making share easing in FY26, and options account for almost all of the money lost.

91.1% FY24 90.9% FY25 87.7% FY26
View data table
Share of individual traders in India's equity derivatives segment with net losses, by financial year, as given in SEBI's FY26 study.
PeriodValue
FY2491.1%
FY2590.9%
FY2687.7%
Share of individual traders in India's equity derivatives segment with net losses, by financial year, as given in SEBI's FY26 study. (SEBI (derivatives profitability study, FY26), Aug 2026)

SEBI's yearly shares and its FY22-FY24 figure are different measures: the first counts each year on its own, the second counts each trader's result over three years. The FY25 loss total is SEBI's revised figure. A lakh is 100,000 and a crore is 10 million.

Do losing derivatives traders in India do better with experience?

  • Among individual traders active in India's equity derivatives segment throughout FY22-FY26, only 0.5% were profitable in all five years, while 65.6% lost money in every year. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • 90-92% of Indian derivatives traders who lost money in each of the two previous years lost again the next year. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • The share of loss-makers in India's equity derivatives segment rose from about 91% among first-year traders to over 95% among traders with four or more consecutive years of trading. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • Only 15% of client-quarters in SEBI's trading behaviour study were profitable. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • The median losing quarter for an Indian derivatives trader was ₹10,525, more than twice the median winning quarter of ₹4,366. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • 93% of individual equity derivatives traders in India were classed as only options buyers in FY26. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • Options buyers in India had a loss-maker rate of about 90%, against 44% for traders SEBI classes as majorly options sellers. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • Loss-making traders among India's majorly options sellers lost about ₹51.7 lakh each on average in FY26. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • Traders active on more than 100 days a year were 42% of Indian individual derivatives traders but accounted for 94% of turnover and 87% of losses. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)
  • 57% of the FY25 cohort of Indian derivatives traders kept trading in FY26, against a long-term average of about 65%. (SEBI (trading behaviour study), Aug 2026)

How much index options trading in India happens on expiry day?

These shares describe index options turnover as a whole, a different measure from the share of traders who lose money.

What does academic research say about retail options traders in India?

This is an academic working paper and is kept apart from SEBI's regulatory studies.

How many retail CFD traders lose money?

Most of them, on every regulator's count, though the counts differ. EU, UK, Irish and Australian regulators each measured their own market in different years, so the figures sit side by side here and are not averaged.

  1. 1 All retail clients 68%
  2. 2 Trading options CFDs 85%
  3. 3 New clients from paid online ads 74%
Share of retail CFD clients in Australia who lost money in the 2023-24 financial year, on ASIC's data, for all retail clients and two groups ASIC singles out. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • Average losses per client in the national regulators' studies of retail CFD accounts in the EU ranged from €1,600 to €29,000, ESMA said in 2018. (ESMA (CFD measures press release), Mar 2018)
  • ESMA's 2018 CFD measures cap how far retail clients can gear a position at between 30:1 for major currency pairs and 2:1 for cryptocurrencies. (ESMA (CFD measures press release), Mar 2018)
  • Across eight major UK CFD providers, the average result per client account was a loss of £2,200 over a year, in the FCA's sample. (FCA (consultation paper CP16/40), Dec 2016)
  • 75% of retail clients who traded CFDs with Irish-based investment and stockbroking firms in 2013-2014 made a loss, with an average loss of €6,900. (Central Bank of Ireland (CFD inspection), Nov 2015)
  • Over 39,000 retail clients, almost 5,000 of them resident in Ireland, traded CFDs with Irish-based firms in 2013-2014. (Central Bank of Ireland (CFD inspection), Nov 2015)
  • The FCA expected its permanent CFD restrictions to save UK retail consumers between £267m and £451m a year, an estimate it made in July 2019. (FCA (PS19/18 CFD policy statement), Jul 2019)
  • ESMA's intervention reduced client losses by £77m between August and October 2018, equal to a projected £309m a year, on the FCA's figures. (FCA (PS19/18 CFD policy statement), Jul 2019)
  • Retail CFD clients in Australia had net losses of A$458 million in 2023-24, including A$73 million in fees. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • 85% of retail clients in Australia trading options CFDs made a net loss in 2023-24. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • 74% of new retail CFD clients in Australia acquired through paid online advertising lost money. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • Wholesale CFD clients in Australia fared worse in 2023-24, in ASIC's words: 70% lost money, with net losses of A$738 million including A$64 million in fees. (ASIC (Report 828), Jan 2026)
  • Within six months of ASIC's CFD product intervention order taking effect on 29 March 2021, aggregate net losses on Australian retail client accounts fell 91%, from A$372 million to A$33 million per quarter. (ASIC (media release 26-239MR), Oct 2026)
  • Active retail CFD accounts in Australia fell from 504,905 to 357,841 over the same six months. (ASIC (media release 26-239MR), Oct 2026)

Each regulator measured a different market, sample and period: ESMA quotes a range across national regulators' studies, the FCA sampled client accounts at UK firms over a year, the Central Bank of Ireland covered 2013-2014 and ASIC covers the 2023-24 financial year. The FCA savings figures are estimates, not measured outcomes. None of these is a broker's own disclosure, which the next section covers.

How do retail traders of turbos fare in the Netherlands?

  • 68% of retail clients in the Netherlands made a loss trading turbos, a geared exchange-traded product, between 1 June 2017 and 30 June 2018. (AFM (turbos analysis), Feb 2020)
  • The average return per retail client trading turbos in the Netherlands was minus €2,680 over the period. (AFM (turbos analysis), Feb 2020)
  • 56% of turbo positions in the Dutch regulator's analysis were closed within 24 hours. (AFM (turbos analysis), Feb 2020)
  • 88% of Dutch turbo clients with more than 500 transactions made a loss, against 64% of clients with fewer than 10 transactions. (AFM (turbos analysis), Feb 2020)
  • Dutch turbo clients with more than 500 transactions were 3% of clients but accounted for 46% of all transactions. (AFM (turbos analysis), Feb 2020)

Turbos are a different product from CFDs, and the Dutch figures are not comparable with the CFD counts above.

What share of retail accounts lose money at each CFD broker?

It differs by broker. Each figure below is the broker's own regulatory disclosure as shown on its website on 14 November 2026. It describes that firm's retail clients and is not a market-wide loss rate.

  1. 1 ActivTrades 70%
  2. 2 Capital.com 69%
  3. 3 CMC Markets 69%
  4. 4 FXCM 67%
  5. 5 IG 70%
  6. 6 Pepperstone 73.6%
  7. 7 Saxo 61%
  8. 8 XTB 78%
Share of retail investor accounts that lose money at eight brokers' UK entities, in alphabetical order. Each bar is that broker's own disclosure as shown on its UK website on 14 November 2026 and linked in the list above. All use the measure set by the FCA rule linked here. Each firm has different clients, so this is not a ranking of brokers. (FCA (PS19/18, the rule that sets the measure), Jul 2019)
  • UK CFD providers must publish the percentage of their retail client accounts that lost money, recalculated every three months over the preceding 12 months and including all costs and fees. (FCA (PS19/18 CFD policy statement), Jul 2019)
  • Under the FCA rule, a retail client account counts as having lost money if its realised and unrealised net profits over the 12-month period are below zero. (FCA (PS19/18 CFD policy statement), Jul 2019)
  • IG (UK): 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with the firm, as displayed on its UK website on 14 November 2026. (IG (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • CMC Markets (UK): 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting or trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (CMC Markets (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • Pepperstone (UK): 73.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (Pepperstone (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • Capital.com (Capital Com (UK) Limited): 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (Capital.com (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • Saxo (UK site): 61% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (Saxo (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • XTB Limited (UK): 78% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (XTB (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • FXCM UK (Stratos Markets Limited): 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (FXCM (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • ActivTrades PLC (UK site): 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (ActivTrades (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • Spreadex Ltd (UK): 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (Spreadex (UK risk warning), Nov 2026)

These are single-broker disclosures, each calculated from that firm's own retail clients. They change every quarter and the pages do not state which quarter is shown. Spreadex words its warning as retail investors, not accounts, and is left out of the chart. They are not regulator studies and are not averaged here.

What do IG's entities outside the UK disclose?

  • IG Europe GmbH (German site): 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (IG Europe (German risk warning), Nov 2026)
  • IG International Limited (Bermuda, international site): 80% of retail client accounts lose money when trading CFDs with the firm, as displayed on 14 November 2026. (IG International (risk warning), Nov 2026)

IG Europe is a German entity and IG International a Bermuda entity. Neither is a UK entity, so neither is in the chart.

How much currency changes hands worldwide each day?

Several trillion dollars a day across spot trades, swaps and forwards. The BIS survey below covers the whole over-the-counter market, so it shows the size of the market and says nothing about how retail traders fare in it.

This breakdown comes from the preliminary results of September 2025, and the BIS revised the global total in December 2025. The survey covers the whole over-the-counter market and is not a measure of retail trading.

How big is options and 0DTE trading?

Options volume has grown in each of Cboe's last three annual reports, and contracts that expire the same day now make up more than half of trading in S&P 500 index options. Cboe estimates that retail traders account for about half of that same-day volume.

3.7bn 2023 3.8bn 2024 4.6bn 2025
View data table
Total contracts traded across Cboe's four US options exchanges, in billions. Each year comes from the release for that year; the link is to the latest one.
PeriodValue
20233.7bn
20243.8bn
20254.6bn
Total contracts traded across Cboe's four US options exchanges, in billions. Each year comes from the release for that year; the link is to the latest one. (Cboe (annual trading volume releases), Jan 2026)

Cboe's figures are its own exchange data and its retail shares are Cboe's estimates. SPX figures cover S&P 500 index options only. The SEC staff figures for 2019 and 2020 and Cboe's market total for 2025 come from different producers and are not compared.

Do retail options traders in the US make money?

These are the figures in the March 2022 working paper. The study was later published in a journal and the published figures may differ.

How many US investors trade options?

How many pattern day traders are there in the US?

A small share of brokerage customers, on FINRA's counts from early 2025. The rule that created the label has since been replaced by new intraday margin standards.

  • Customers designated as pattern day traders were 2.4% of about 54 million customers with margin accounts at the ten US firms that gave FINRA data. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • Pattern day traders were 0.9% of about 150 million total customers at the ten US firms. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • Using Consolidated Audit Trail data for January to March 2025, FINRA estimated that about 1.1 million US accounts qualified as pattern day traders, about 3% of the 36 million individual or employee accounts with at least one equity or options trade. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • About 75% of the US accounts that qualified as pattern day traders in FINRA's audit trail estimate made six or more day trades in a five-day period. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • Under the former US rule, a pattern day trader was any customer who executed four or more day trades within five business days in a margin account. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • The former US day trading margin requirements date from rule amendments that the SEC approved in 2001. (FINRA (day trading margin rule filing), Jan 2026)
  • FINRA's new intraday margin standards took effect on 4 June 2026, with a phase-in period that ends on 20 October 2027. (FINRA (Regulatory Notice 26-10), Apr 2026)

FINRA's two counts differ. The first, which FINRA calls its primary estimate, is customers at ten firms on one date. The second is accounts estimated from three months of trading records. A pattern day trader was a regulatory label, not a measure of profit or loss.

How much do US investors borrow to trade?

  • Debit balances in US customers' securities margin accounts were $1,448,360 million at the end of October 2026, against $1,225,597 million at the end of December 2025, on FINRA's monthly margin statistics. (FINRA (margin statistics), Oct 2026)
  • Free credit balances at US firms were $210,290 million in cash accounts and $212,890 million in securities margin accounts in October 2026. (FINRA (margin statistics), Oct 2026)
  • 10% of US investors had made margin purchases in the 2024 survey, down from 17% in 2015, 14% in 2018 and 11% in 2021. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)
  • 29% of US investors have an account that allows margin purchases, against 33% in 2015 and 30% in 2018. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)
  • 22% of US investors under 35 report making purchases on margin, compared with 11% of those aged 35 to 54 and 4% of those aged 55 and over. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)

FINRA's margin statistics are reported by its member firms each month. Margin debt is borrowing, not a count of traders, and the survey figures are investors' own answers.

How much US stock trading comes from individual investors?

The SEC's figures give proxies, not a direct retail share. They show that most individual investors' marketable orders go to a handful of off-exchange wholesalers, and that off-exchange trading grew through 2020.

The release figures describe order routing and execution in the first quarter of 2022. Off-exchange volume is a partial proxy only, so none of these figures is the retail share of US trading.

What happened to GameStop shares in January 2021?

The GameStop figures are from a report by SEC staff, with prices and short interest as given in that report. The meme stock shares are survey answers.

How much trading do retail brokers report?

Activity at the large retail brokers has been rising on their own figures. These are each company's operating numbers: an account or a funded customer is not a day trader, and daily average trades are not day trades.

7,421 Q3 2025 8,274 Q4 2025 9,899 Q1 2026 11,920 Q2 2026 10,687 Q3 2026
View data table
Charles Schwab clients' daily average trades by quarter, in thousands, from the company's third-quarter 2026 release.
PeriodValue
Q3 20257,421
Q4 20258,274
Q1 20269,899
Q2 202611,920
Q3 202610,687
Charles Schwab clients' daily average trades by quarter, in thousands, from the company's third-quarter 2026 release. (Charles Schwab (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood had 28.7 million funded customers at the end of the third quarter of 2026, up 1.9 million, or 7%, on a year earlier. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood reported 30.4 million investment accounts and $396 billion in total platform assets at the end of the third quarter of 2026. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood's equity notional trading volume rose 53% on a year earlier to $992 billion in the third quarter of 2026, which the company calls a record. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood's options revenue was $399 million in the third quarter of 2026, against $121 million from equities. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Event contracts traded on Robinhood rose more than 7x on a year earlier to 16.4 billion in the third quarter of 2026, a record on the company's figures. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood's crypto notional trading volume fell 38% on a year earlier to $50 billion in the third quarter of 2026. (Robinhood (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Robinhood ended 2025 with 27.0 million funded customers, and its net revenues for 2025 rose 52% to $4.5 billion. (Robinhood (Q4 2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • Robinhood customers traded 659 million options contracts in the fourth quarter of 2025, a record at the time on the company's figures. (Robinhood (Q4 2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • Charles Schwab clients made 10.687 million daily average trades in the third quarter of 2026, up 44% on the third quarter of 2025. (Charles Schwab (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Schwab had 40.3 million active brokerage accounts and $13.33 trillion in client assets at 30 September 2026. (Charles Schwab (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Schwab had 38.5 million active brokerage accounts at 31 December 2025. (Charles Schwab (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Schwab clients opened 1.183 million new brokerage accounts in the first quarter of 2025, 1.098 million in the second, 1.143 million in the third and 1.268 million in the fourth. (Charles Schwab (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Interactive Brokers handled 4.27 million total daily average revenue trades in the third quarter of 2026, up 18%. (Interactive Brokers (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Interactive Brokers' customer accounts rose 35% to 5.58 million and customer equity rose 27% to $964.7 billion in the third quarter of 2026. (Interactive Brokers (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
  • Interactive Brokers ended 2025 with 4.40 million customer accounts, up 32%, and $779.9 billion in customer equity, up 37%. (Interactive Brokers (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Interactive Brokers handled 4.04 million total daily average revenue trades in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 30%. (Interactive Brokers (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • eToro had 4.39 million funded accounts at the end of the third quarter of 2026, up 18% from 3.73 million a year earlier. (eToro (Q3 2026 results), Nov 2026)
  • eToro's assets under administration were flat on a year earlier at $20.8 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2026. (eToro (Q3 2026 results), Nov 2026)
  • eToro customers made 48.2 million capital-markets trades in October 2026, down 22% on a year earlier, and 2.0 million crypto trades, down 62%. (eToro (Q3 2026 results), Nov 2026)

Every figure here is the company's own reported operating data. The brokers define accounts, customers and trades in their own ways, so their figures are not added or compared with one another.

Who invests in the stock market, and how often do they trade?

A majority of Americans own shares in some form, but few trade often. Surveys measure ownership and occasional trading, which is a long way from day trading, and each survey defines its population differently.

35% 2015 33% 2018 38% 2021 36% 2024
View data table
Share of US investors with non-retirement accounts who bought or sold investments four or more times in the past 12 months, by survey year.
PeriodValue
201535%
201833%
202138%
202436%
Share of US investors with non-retirement accounts who bought or sold investments four or more times in the past 12 months, by survey year. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)

Gallup surveys US adults, the Federal Reserve counts families, the FINRA Foundation surveys investors with accounts outside retirement plans and the FCA surveys UK adults. Ownership is not trading, and four trades a year is far from day trading.

Does trading more often hurt returns?

In the best-known academic studies of individual investors, yes. These studies cover ordinary brokerage customers in the US and all individual investors in Taiwan, not day traders alone, and most of the data is from the 1990s.

  1. 1 Households that traded most 11.4%
  2. 2 Average household 16.4%
  3. 3 Market 17.9%
Annual returns of US households at a large discount broker in 1991-1996, compared with the market return over the same period. (Barber and Odean (Journal of Finance, 2000), Apr 2000)

These are peer-reviewed studies of individual investors, each with its own sample and period. Only the abstract of the Robinhood study was checked. None of them measures day traders specifically.

How many people trade or hold crypto?

It depends on the question asked. Past-year use, having ever used it and owning it today are different measures from different surveys, and they are listed separately here.

12% 2021 10% 2022 7% 2023 8% 2024 10% 2025
View data table
Share of US adults who used cryptocurrency in any way during the year, from the Federal Reserve's household survey.
PeriodValue
202112%
202210%
20237%
20248%
202510%
Share of US adults who used cryptocurrency in any way during the year, from the Federal Reserve's household survey. (Federal Reserve (SHED 2025), May 2026)

The Federal Reserve measures use during the year, Pew measures having ever used crypto, Gallup measures owning it now, and the FINRA Foundation figure is a share of investors, not of all adults. The four are not comparable and are never combined.

How much money is lost to investment scams?

Billions of dollars a year in the US, on reports alone. The Federal Trade Commission and the FBI each count the losses people report to them, on different definitions, so the two are never added together.

  1. 1 2023 $4,570,275,683
  2. 2 2024 $6,570,639,864
  3. 3 2025 $8,648,617,756
Investment fraud losses reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center by year, from the three-year comparison table in the 2025 report. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • The FTC received 3 million fraud reports from US consumers in 2025. (FTC (2025 fraud testimony release), Mar 2026)
  • The median individual loss to investment scams reported to the FTC was more than $10,000 in 2025. (FTC (investment scams consumer alert), Apr 2026)
  • Reported losses to investment scams in the US were $5.7 billion in 2024, a 24% increase over 2023, on FTC data. (FTC (2024 fraud data release), Mar 2025)
  • 38% of people who reported a fraud to the FTC in 2024 said they lost money, up from 27% in 2023. (FTC (2024 fraud data release), Mar 2025)
  • Total fraud losses reported to the FTC were more than $12.5 billion in 2024. (FTC (2024 fraud data release), Mar 2025)
  • Nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam to the FTC in 2025 said it started on social media, with reported losses of $2.1 billion. (FTC (social media scams data spotlight), Apr 2026)
  • $1.1 billion of the money reported lost in 2025 to scams that started on social media, more than half, went to investment scammers. (FTC (social media scams data spotlight), Apr 2026)
  • Reported losses by older adults in the US to investment scams jumped 42% in 2025 to over $1 billion. (FTC (older adults report release), Oct 2026)
  • Investment fraud losses reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center were $8,648,617,756 in 2025, from 72,984 complaints. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • Total losses reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reached $20.877 billion in 2025 from 1,008,597 complaints, a 26% increase in losses from 2024. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • The average loss per complaint to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center was $20,699 in 2025. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • Losses with a cryptocurrency nexus reported to the FBI were $11.37 billion in 2025. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • Cryptocurrency investment fraud brought $7.228 billion of reported losses from 61,559 complaints in 2025, up 25% in losses and 48% in complaints on 2024, which the FBI calls the highest source of financial losses to Americans that year. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • People aged 60 and over filed 201,266 complaints to the FBI's centre in 2025 with losses of $7.7 billion, against 112,069 complaints and $563.1 million for those aged 20-29. (FBI IC3 (2025 annual report), Apr 2026)
  • 65% of US adults who experienced fraud involving cryptocurrency lost money that was not recovered, against 31% for fraud involving debit cards. (Federal Reserve (SHED 2025), May 2026)
  • The median loss in fraud involving cryptocurrency in the US was $1,200 before any recovery and $900 after, in the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey. (Federal Reserve (SHED 2025), May 2026)
  • 37% of US investors are worried about losing money to investment fraud, up from 31% in 2021. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)
  • Half of US investors did not recognise warning signs of fraudulent investments, such as a promise of a guaranteed, risk-free 25 percent annual return. (FINRA Foundation (NFCS Investor Survey 2024), Dec 2025)

These are losses that people reported. The FTC and the FBI collect reports separately, with different definitions and some overlap, so their totals are not added together. The FBI totals and the age split cover all internet crime, not investment fraud alone, and the Federal Reserve figures cover all fraud involving cryptocurrency.

Glossary

Day trade
Buying and selling the same security within one trading day.
Pattern day trader (PDT)
Under the former US rule, a customer who made four or more day trades within five business days in a margin account.
CFD
Contract for difference, a derivative that pays the change in the price of an asset and is usually traded on margin.
Spread bet
A UK product similar to a CFD, in which the client stakes an amount per point of price movement.
Turbo
A geared exchange-traded product sold to retail investors, studied here in the Netherlands.
Margin
Money borrowed from a broker, or the deposit put up, to hold a position larger than the cash in the account.
0DTE
Zero days to expiry: an option traded on the day it expires.
SPX
Options on the S&P 500 index, traded on Cboe.
ADV
Average daily volume.
F&O
Futures and options, the equity derivatives segment in India.
FY (India)
The Indian financial year, April to March. FY26 ran from April 2025 to March 2026.
Lakh and crore
Indian number units: one lakh is 100,000 and one crore is 10 million.
DATs and DARTs
Daily average trades (Schwab) and daily average revenue trades (Interactive Brokers): each broker's own count of client trades per day.
Wholesaler
An off-exchange dealer that executes orders routed to it by retail brokers.
NMS stock
A US exchange-listed stock covered by the national market system rules.
ATS
Alternative trading system, an off-exchange trading venue in the US.
OTC
Over the counter: traded directly between parties and not on an exchange.
Abnormal return
A return measured against a benchmark such as the market over the same period.
Basis point
One hundredth of a percentage point.
SEBI
Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Indian securities regulator.
ESMA
European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU markets regulator.
FCA
Financial Conduct Authority, the UK financial regulator.
ASIC
Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
AFM
Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets.
FINRA
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulatory body for US broker-dealers.
BIS
Bank for International Settlements, which runs the Triennial Central Bank Survey of foreign exchange.
IC3
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Methodology and sources

Figures come from the primary documents of regulators (SEBI, the FCA, ESMA, the Central Bank of Ireland, ASIC, the AFM, FINRA, the SEC, the FTC and the FBI), central banks (the Federal Reserve and the BIS), peer-reviewed studies and working papers, survey organisations (the FINRA Foundation, Gallup and Pew Research Center), Cboe, and brokers' own results and website disclosures. Academic studies, regulator studies and broker disclosures are different measures: each figure is given with its market, instrument, period and population, and the three kinds are never merged, averaged or put in one chart. Broker CFD loss percentages are each firm's own disclosure as shown on its website on 14 November 2026. Where a producer has revised a figure we use the later value, working papers are labelled as working papers, and figures we could not verify at the source are left out. This page is information only and is not investment advice. It is reviewed monthly.