How many daytraders are there around the world?

[Mattew]

Software for Traders/Quants - Was: How many daytraders are there around the world?

Hi folks, does anybody know recent statistics on how many daytraders are there around the world?

The most recent statistics that I have is of Jan 1999 (from Dan Brekke article "The Spread-Players Club"):
How many daytraders are there? Nasdaq and the Securities and Exchange Commission say they have no idea. "There are no numbers," Jim Marks, a Deutsche Bank Securities analyst, says flatly. He notes that regulators come to him for estimates on daytrading. James Lee, president of the Electronic Traders Association and CEO of Momentum, says that between 2,500 and 3,000 people use trading-service offices around the US. Credit Suisse First Boston's Bill Burnham is willing to hazard a liberal guess. Daytraders, he says, make up about 5 percent of the 3 million to 3.5 million online investors. So the daytrading subgroup, loosely defined, would total 150,000 to 175,000.

Does anybody know what the story with the year 2006?

Thanks

 

[bullcar]

I started to count all the day traders i know, I can tell you there are at least 132 of them!

 

[jimbo57]

why does it matter?

 

[SOCRATES]

I would go with Bill's view and say that is about right. And yes, it does matter.

 

[Mattew]

Why does it matter?

I would go with Bill's view and say that is about right. And yes, it does matter.

That article is of the year 1999... I am very interested in recent statistics to view the dinamics.

why does it matter?

About two years ago I had a problem to develop complex automated trading strategy, test it on historical data and run my strategy straightaway on real time data, so to get real time recommendations for my own trading. At that time I had reviewed many tools that are on the market (WealthLab, MetaStock, Omega...) and I was NOT happy with them (EasyLanguage and WealthLab script and other tools in that software...)

So I and couple of my friends programmers-analysts-traders, we have decided to develop a tool for our needs and we have chosen Java as tech that is simple for programming and as fast as C++ in mathematics calculations and complex algorithms...

At the moment our project looks like a complete prototype of "Financial Analyst Integrated Developing Environment" that quants, technical and quantitative analysits and many traders whould Love in our opinion becouse we Love it! We call it "Analyst IDE" and it is So Nice, So Easy, So User Friendly In Strategy Development and in Analysis of the results, also it has Brilliant Perfomance in Running Strategy Simulations (about 10 times faster then WeathLab) and it's easy to extend "Analyst IDE" to more functionality... As you see, I really Love our framework-tool! For example, it was very easy for us to develop Chart Patterns Automatic Detection Algorithms... and many more...

This is why we have decided to start looking for investments and develop a commercial version of our "Analyst IDE". We need something like $300k..500k and one year to make from our tool a commercial one. By the way, if anybody interested I could send a presentation with all its currently implemented features and planed ones, just send me a request to that email: [email protected]

Thanks a lot!

Here is a screenshot of it when you do analysis...

 

[SOCRATES]

Mattew, this is a serious bit of kit you are developing here. It is also interesting for members to actually hear of the development costs of projects of this kind, which can run into hundreds of thousands, for them later to scratch around seeking "free this" and "free that".

I own several progs. I do not release any of them commercially. I prefer to absorb the costs myself.

Why don't you and your group do the same ?

There are several complicated issues with releasing a complex prog like this on a commercial basis.
These issues are not suitable for discussion in public, but rather in private, principal to principal.

If you wish to consult me, please feel free to do so initially by PM. I will be very happy to advise you. I do not need anything in return. But I do have a lot of experience that can prove useful to you.

 

[Mattew]

Mattew, this is a serious bit of kit you are developing here.

How many traders do you think would be interested in that kind of software? What I mean is I need Analyst IDE and love it myself very much and I wonder if other traders would find it useful?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Tuffty]

There may be two ways to go with your product. 1) Mass market retail 2) Tailor to investment banks.

It it were me I'd try 2. You'd need to find yourself a freindly investment bank who'd be interested in helping you develop the product that would primarily meet their needs. They'd be helping with the development funding but get what they want. You'd be (the owner of what you develop) and can then sell the same or similar offering to other quants etc at investment banks.

Route 1 is a lot more difficult and higher risk in my opinion (based on my prior career of selling financial data/software to retail and investment banks 8 yrs ago). Most of the money in retail is made from transaction products (brokerage fees).

The above is dependent on your product filling a gap in the market. I don't know where those gaps are or if your product fills any from an investment banks' point of view. Also if it is primarily displacing existing product then its very hard to get people to change from what they are used to. Even if what you're offereing is much better and cheaper. People don't like change.

Your product looks interesting.

 

[Mattew]

Hi, Tuffty.

All you say sounds very reasonable. Thanks a lot... I will try to tailor to investment bank. And I also would be very thanksful to you if you could recommend me some investment banks that in your opinion would be interested in the product...

p.s.
Our product Analyst IDE can easily be integrated with
- Mathematica (UnRisk)
- Various data providers (FIX, data providers api)
- other tools

And also I want to admin that Analyst IDE solves the following problem - "...I need to develop, test on historical data and run on realtime data my investing strategies with maximum concentration on my ideas/research but not on additional automation modules development"

Thanks a lot

 

[zagreb]

if you want to make something simple, but helpful to retail community, why don't you devise currency relative strength graph for Forex market.

Real-time graph would monitor relative strength of particular currency in relation to others and plot 2hr, 4hr, daily graph in real time. That way user will be able to trade strongest against weakest currency (if other parameters coincide with that direction). Same principe you may use in stock sector analyser (for example to find strongest stocks in manufacturing sector).

It looks like simple task, but it would be very helpful to any serious trader. I have been long in this business, and I would certainly find use for such service.

You may sell subscription to such service (or ads), where your main cost would be datafeed.

regards

 

[aznar]

Yes..i agree with you zagreb

 

[Mattew]

There may be two ways to go with your product. 1) Mass market retail 2) Tailor to investment banks.
...
Your product looks interesting.

I am happy now to announce that we have nearly finished our
product presentation at http://analyst.brillianto.com

Thanks!