Interactive Brokers has released data showing the percentage of their customer accounts that have been profitable trading forex. The data for 2011 shows that they had about 45k retail forex accounts at the end of last year. The percentage of accounts that were profitable were 40.4%, 38.8%, 51.2% and 51.0% during 1Q11, 2Q11, 3Q11 and 4Q11 respecfully. So much for only 5% of traders making money. Note - I got this data this morning when I logged into Account Management.
I was in TWS and asked for my account statement. It opened an Internet window and displayed a notice about IB forex trading that I had to acknowledge before I could continue. So I don't know where they have the notice posted.
The 5% in this case is over time. Profitable accounts in done within that calender quarter. Even shitty traders have up months. Inactive/busted out accounts are dropped from the list, the stats only include active accounts. I'd say the 5% profitable is still in the right ballpark... if not less.
Interesting article on how various brokers calculate profitability metrics: http://forexmagnates.com/nfa-clarif...ers-account-profitability-calculation-methods NFA has received a number of questions regarding what it means to be an âopenâ account for purposes of this calculation. For example, there is some confusion regarding whether an account that maintained a cash balance, but had no open positions and no trading during quarter, should be included in the calculation. After consultation with CFTC staff, NFA provides the following information: The calculation, including determining the total number of non-discretionary retail forex customer accounts maintained by the RFED and FCM that quarter, should include only accounts that executed any trades during the quarter and/or had an open position at any time during the quarter. Any account that did not execute any trades or have an open position during the quarter should not be included in the calculation regardless of whether the account maintained a cash balance and/or was paid interest or charged any fees during the quarter. 2011 Q4 Profitability reports from brokers. http://forexmagnates.com/forex-brok...unts-increase-traders-profitability/#comments IB's profitability stats are strong in comparison to other firms listed in the report, but it's possible that there are differences in how IB calculates forex profitability.
Anybody who has ever been a broker will tell you 95% of retail traders of futures or forex will eventually blow up. A broker matter of factly told me his customers will continue to add money to the account to "feed the kitty." Of course, he was very adamant that the money in trading was from brokering, i.e. making customers broker.
within the statement we have to sign.. which ends with : (1)Information regarding the performance of Interactive Brokers retail forex customers for the past 5 years is available upon request.
But what might be the cause of such a large difference in profitability between customers of various brokers?