Day Trading & Scalping Average Rate of Return for Day Traders

It's the question at the tip of every aspiring day trader’s tongue: how much money can I earn from day trading?

Since most day traders do not disclose their trading results to anyone but the tax authorities, an exact answer to how much money an average day trader makes is impossible to answer. However, there are numerous sources of information, including reliable academic studies, that offer clues on average earnings. The majority of available information does not shed a positive light on day trading. The research typically indicates that, in fact, most day traders lose money.

Day traders make money by buying stock and holding it for a short period of time--anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours--before selling it off again. Day traders usually enter and exit trading positions within the day and rarely hold positions over night. The focus is on profiting from short-term price fluctuations. They often use leverage to give themselves greater power to buy and sell.

Significant Start Up Costs
Getting started in day trading is not like dabbling in investing. Anybody would-be investor with a few hundred dollars can buy some stock in a company they believe in and keep it for years. Under FINRA rules, pattern day traders in the equities market must maintain a minimum of $25,000 in their accounts and will be denied access to the markets if the balance drops below that level. This means day traders must have enough capital on top of that to realistically make a profit. And because day trading is more than a full-time job, it is not compatible with keeping a day job. That means the day trader must live off his profits from trading as well as risk his own capital every day to make those profits. In addition to the minimum balance required, prospective day traders must consider the cost of equipment such as computer hardware and fast internet access. Brokerage commissions and taxes on short-term capital gains can also make a big dent in profits.

A University of California, Davis study published in 2000 by Brad Barber and Terrance Odean titled “Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth,” showed a correlation between active trading and poor performance among individual investors. The study pointed to overconfidence as a cause of high-volume trading and the resulting poor performance.

A 2004 academic study by Brad Barber, Yi-Tsung Lee, Yu-Jane Liu, and Terrance Odean examined the transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1995 through 1999. Day trading among individual investors is common in Taiwan and accounted for over 20 percent of total trading volume during the period of the study. The research showed that while high-volume traders were sometimes able to earn gross profits, the profits were usually not enough to cover transaction costs. In a typical six-month period more than 80 percent of day traders lost money, and only 1 percent of them could be called predictably profitable.

An important factor that can influence earnings potential and career longevity is whether you day trade independently or for an institution such as a bank or hedge fund. Traders working at an institution have the benefit of not risking their own money. They are also typically far better capitalized and have access to advantageous information and tools. Unlike independent day traders, they are also compensated with benefits such as health insurance, retirement funds, sick leave, and vacation days.

In 2012, the Wall Street Journal published an article giving some rare insight into the failure rates of retail foreign-exchange traders, many of whom are day traders. The article, titled “The Customer Is Too Often Wrong at FXCM,” showed that in four consecutive quarters more than 70 percent of FXCM's U.S. accounts were unprofitable. The article cited the high levels of leverage available at FXCM (50 to 1) as part of the problem. With 50 to 1 leverage, a $10,000 account can take a market exposure of $500,000 and it only takes a relatively small adverse price move to erase the initial balance. Transaction fees are also mentioned as a hurdle that must be overcome.

In Summary
Trying to become a millionaire through independent day trading is something like trying to become a Hollywood star or a professional athlete. The evidence suggests that a very small minority will achieve consistently high-level of earnings while the majority will not be able to sustain a long-term career.

Dan Blystone can be contacted at TradersLog
 
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Average rate of return for day traders

Day trading is definitely mug money. Why would you risk so much for so much hard work for so little reward? The appeal is of course that it provides easy answers that people want to hear. Evidence of the pathetic growth rates to be made is simply ignored lest it burst the bubble of lying on the beach with the yacht in the background earned after 2 or 3 years in day trading.
The reason the data for growth rates in day trading is so vague is quite simply because it’s probably non-existent. If someone out there was making Stella growth rates we’d probably hear about it, but we don’t.
On the other hand there is someone who has all the books, accounts, data etc to prove their annual average growth rate and that’s the fourth richest guy in the world, Warren Buffet. Absolutely no vagueness there, this guy has returned an average annual growth rate since 1965 of circa 20%.
Now, if warren buffet is making 20% a year we can safely say that’s a good growth rate. Any trading system or investment system that is beating the stock market return of 8% a year and getting near 20% per year return is doing very well. All you need then is capital and compound interest will do the rest.
If that’s not what you want to hear then stick to day trading.
 
Day trading is definitely mug money. Why would you risk so much for so much hard work for so little reward? The appeal is of course that it provides easy answers that people want to hear. Evidence of the pathetic growth rates to be made is simply ignored lest it burst the bubble of lying on the beach with the yacht in the background earned after 2 or 3 years in day trading.
The reason the data for growth rates in day trading is so vague is quite simply because it’s probably non-existent. If someone out there was making Stella growth rates we’d probably hear about it, but we don’t.
On the other hand there is someone who has all the books, accounts, data etc to prove their annual average growth rate and that’s the fourth richest guy in the world, Warren Buffet. Absolutely no vagueness there, this guy has returned an average annual growth rate since 1965 of circa 20%.
Now, if warren buffet is making 20% a year we can safely say that’s a good growth rate. Any trading system or investment system that is beating the stock market return of 8% a year and getting near 20% per year return is doing very well. All you need then is capital and compound interest will do the rest.
If that’s not what you want to hear then stick to day trading.


If you’re proficient at day trading you will earn money .....if you are bad at it you will lose money

That’s it.......
 
Average rate of return for day traders

Rate of return for day traders should not be expected more. Because everyday profit is not possible for day traders, it need depth knowledge awareness to gain profit in intraday.
 
Rate of return for day traders should not be expected more. Because everyday profit is not possible for day traders, it need depth knowledge awareness to gain profit in intraday.

a daytrader making say 20-30 trades a day cant beat a longer term trader making say thesame max trades a week or month .....seriously ?

jees i better stop daytrading ...im getting it all wrong :)

N
 
Rate of return for day traders should not be expected more. Because everyday profit is not possible for day traders, it need depth knowledge awareness to gain profit in intraday.

it takes a lot of experience, skill and knowledge to trade in any timeframe my friend ........no excuses or easy rides in trading :smart:
 
a bit lightweight ?

sorry Dan ...........research and comment is a little on the lightweight side for me ........N
 
I guess this is why so many day traders are selling their so-called "systems" on Youtube.

If they were really that good at day trading they would not need to. Same can be said for folks selling real estate systems and other get rich quick schemes.
 
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