If one trades and one came here, one occasionally still posts here. I claim maybe ten people from 2001 still post even occasionally any more. You can take that statistic any way, but certainly OCAMs Razor is they have left the biz. There was a guy that came here and said, "Retail traders lose. They just lose!"
Well that guy and this guy is honest. Honesty is the first step to mastery. Most people that came to ET, even though 9 out of 10 of them lost, AT LEAST, you got the impression that everyone on ET was a millionaire. Every statistic put out anywhere, by brokers themselves, tell you that 9 out of 10 traders fail.
Here is the guy!!! http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/why-do-more-than-90-of-traders-lose.218445/
The "90%" comes from brokerage numbers of blown accounts. Most of us have blown an account or two along the way. Yes most fail but not because retail trading is "impossible" but because people come into the markets with a funded account yet no skill or applicable knowledge. Yes, this is a tough business but so are many other lucrative and demanding endeavors.
Nitro...I'm only addressing your comment that you're using ET as a measurement of the decline in day trading. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what happen to the markets after the 2008 - 2009 financial collapse nor does it take another rocket scientist to remember what happen to the markets years before that when the bubble burst from the dot.com days. Next, throw in some exchange rule changes between those two key periods...trading as a whole is on the decline. Now throw in the growth of algorithms and some scandals...its declined and noticeable by anyone that's been involved in the markets since the bubble burst. My point is this, algorithms are not the reason for the decline. They are just part of the reason and in my opinion is that algorithms has prevented trading itself from rebounding to prior levels. With that said, using ET as a metrics...many of the original active members... Some died (I've seen announcements at this forum of at 5 different active members that suddenly stopped posting...they had died), many moved to twitter/stocktwits, some banned, some moved on to other trading careers, some changed user names (very common) and some blew out their accounts. I know 15 active members from the old days that are posting actively on twitter and stocktwits. Yet, the fact that I know many from the old days posting elsewhere...that may be more of a representation of the posting environment here at this forum that so many traders consistently complain about. Surely you haven't heard about the guy name marketsurfer and his impact on this forum. Now using my metrics...a minimum of 20 active members did not stop trading due to poor trading. 15 moved to other posting places and 5 are dead. Next, throw in the number of active members that changed their user name...we're talking about a lot of active members from the old days that didn't stop trading because they blew up their accounts. Seriously, there are some folks at this forum that seems to live for giving this place a bad name and make it difficult to have a decent trading discussion. Just go hang out in the Chit Chat threads and P&R threads...that stuff wasn't here in the beginning. Regardless, the issue is this. The OP didn't ask for millionaire day traders nor did he ask for profitable day traders nor did he ask for full-time day traders nor did he ask for women day traders nor did he ask for day traders with another job... He's just doing a documentary on whatever involving Day traders in the New York area. There's no need to complicate the discussion for the OP statement that he wants to do a documentary on "Day traders living in New York" because I'm sure every thing discussed at this forum the OP will hear about it from those he meets. Yeah, most traders lose...its been that way since the birth of Wall Street and will always continue to be so. P.S. There are other trading forums out there that have "grown" in membership...more members each year than the prior year. It would be silly for me to use that as metrics or statistical analysis to come to the conclusion that "day trading is growing". We both know darn well that trading as a whole its not growing...its on the decline and the reasons above explains why. Heck, even more investors as a whole are not involved in the markets. Now go to Greece and you'll see people are more quickly to cash their checks and keep the cash at home. The markets is just scary to people the past 10 years...its that way for traders and investors.
Sure you do... You can not use "posting" as a simple metric (measurement) to determine profitability levels nor can you use the number of registered handles and activity levels. Hopefully that simple statement above is more straight to the point and the explanation of such is that many traders are just scared away, go elsewhere to another forum or social media location like twitter/stocktwits or they just change user names. ET membership decline is mainly due to the birth of twitter, stocktwits, tougher trading conditions and poor moderation. Its that simple. Also, I suspect more members are lurking more than ever before.