Here is the real answer on the odds of becoming a successful day trader. This data is based on the success rate I witnessed while day trading for a propriety trading firm for 6 years, and also from conversations with other proprietary trading firm operators. A proprietary trading firm is one that fully or partially supplies traders with capital, and in exchange, the firm takes a cut of their profits (business models vary, but that is the basic idea).
Given training, money, and experienced traders to help them out, the day trading success rate for trainees becoming consistently profitable traders was extremely low. For traders with little money, little help, or little time, the odds would likely be even lower or the journey will be longer.
While the statistics you are about to read about may seem grim, I don’t look at it that way. To be good at anything takes work, and most people don’t really work that hard at trading (or they focus on the wrong things…discussed below in How to Become a Successful Day Trader). If you do put in the amount and type of work required, you’re more likely to succeed.
This article will look at:
◦ The day trader success rate based on seeing hundreds of traders come and go.
◦ Some misinterpreted statistics and biases that hide how hard successful trading is.

◦ How to have a better chance at being a part of the small group (small relative to all who try) that is consistently successful.

◦ Sprinkled throughout are stories of my journey, trading for a living since 2005.
Here’s the one-page quick read, with additional details below.