How many?

[barryb]

While waiting for some trades to set-up, i started to wonder how many people do what i do as a job in the UK. So, if anyone would like to take an educated guess, i'd be interested to hear your numbers....

How many locals/independent/own account traders (not bank/hedge fund
traders/brokers/dealers) are there in the UK at any one time, that rely on trading as their primary income, including the non-profitable ones? What would this then be as a % of the UK population?

 

[glyder]

I haven't got a clue on the whole figure, but it surprising how many pensioners top up their income with short term share trading in their ISAs. They would add to the number.

 

[timsk]

Hi barryb,
0.(insert a lot of noughts here)1%.
However, the number that try to do it is rising fast, based upon the proliferation of trading related content on the interweb, the growth of sites like T2W and the financial institutions all jumping on the spread betting bandwagon. Like sperm looking for the egg, not many will make it, but a few will and their numbers will surely grow.
Tim.

 

[barryb]

I haven't got a clue on the whole figure, but it surprising how many pensioners top up their income with short term share trading in their ISAs. They would add to the number.

Yes i've heard that too. I remember on that trading program on the bbc, "Million Dollar Traders", that Simon chap was planning to do the same. However from how he got on i hope he didn't pursue the idea.

 

[Jaydee]

I remember on that trading program on the bbc, "Million Dollar Traders", that Simon chap was planning to do the same. However from how he got on i hope he didn't pursue the idea.

Off topic, he's a member of this forum. Not sure if he still frequents the boards though.

 

[barryb]

0.(insert a lot of noughts here)1%.

I was thinking the same, as a % it would be minuscule.

 

[glyder]

Yes i've heard that too. I remember on that trading program on the bbc, "Million Dollar Traders", that Simon chap was planning to do the same. However from how he got on i hope he didn't pursue the idea.

Thats true, he weren't great was he.. when i used to work at a retail brokers I saw that many did surpisingly well..some annual PEPs were up way more than tenfold from their base level ....reading up on investor chronicle and sunday newspaper tips no doubt. Also I suspect that pensioners have a very strong incentive to be picky and cut their losses.
I did see some disasters too, they were rare but usually from (elderly) newbies or those who tried to leverage with warrants or options.

 

[Black Swan]

There was a fantastic publication called investment trends (iirc) that was published in December which would answer/satisfy even the msot curious...costs 16K for the full hit however, I've managed to see sight of (parts of) it, covers stuff such as there are 100K regular spread betters in the UK etc...btw that's targetted to double/treble in the next decade IF no ammendment to tax rules...
Hoping to get a full copy in the next month or so, if I can I'll share some interesting stats on this thread.

 

[barryb]

Off topic, he's a member of this forum. Not sure if he still frequents the boards though.

That's right, i remember seeing him on one of the threads ages ago.

 

[barryb]

There was a fantastic publication called investment trends (iirc) that was published in December which would answer/satisfy even the msot curious...costs 16K for the full hit however, I've managed to see sight of (parts of) it, covers stuff such as there are 100K regular spread betters in the UK etc...btw that's targetted to double/treble in the next decade IF no ammendment to tax rules...
Hoping to get a full copy in the next month or so, if I can I'll share some interesting stats on this thread.

Interesting stuff, that's a lot more SB'ers than i was expecting. Yeah definitely, if you get to see the full copy then all stats would be very welcome!

 

[donaldduke]

While waiting for some trades to set-up, i started to wonder how many people do what i do as a job in the UK. So, if anyone would like to take an educated guess, i'd be interested to hear your numbers....

How many locals/independent/own account traders (not bank/hedge fund
traders/brokers/dealers) are there in the UK at any one time, that rely on trading as their primary income, including the non-profitable ones? What would this then be as a % of the UK population?

There are about 800 members on Trade2win that claim to be Full time home based.
And about 80 that claim to be full time prop.

So an approx 10:1 ratio.

Now you need to guess total number of prop firm traders there are in the UK, if there are 1000 at any time (thats just a guess) and the ratio holds then we talking cira 11,000 people say in the whole of the UK at any given time doing trading full time.

That sounds about right for a maximum ballpark figure. I doubt if 10s of thousands are doing this full time.

But part time the figure is probably over 100K people.

 

[barryb]

There are about 800 members on Trade2win that claim to be Full time home based.
And about 80 that claim to be full time prop.

So an approx 10:1 ratio.

Now you need to guess total number of prop firm traders there are in the UK, if there are 1000 at any time (thats just a guess) and the ratio holds then we talking cira 11,000 people say in the whole of the UK at any given time doing trading full time.

That sounds about right for a maximum ballpark figure. I doubt if 10s of thousands are doing this full time.

But part time the figure is probably over 100K people.

I can see your logic, makes sense. I was thinking under 30k as a guess, and yeah the figure goes through the roof for part timers and dabblers.