You can place on the application whatever you want but it should be correct and make sense. If you say "retired", or "unemployed", etc, but in the income financials you say you make $50,000/year, we have to ask the question, how is the income generated, or our know your customer file is not complete.
This has been an interesting discussion. I'm in the UK and I see some aspects of it would apply to traders here too. The position here in England is that when you apply to a broker for an account you will be required to state your occupation if any and all financial incomes, possibly also to give details of financial assets and investments. Failure to disclose correct and full details here would invalidate the application. If your application was approved but on subsequent checks found to be "inaccurate", the firm would be under no obligation to hand over your profits, only your deposited funds. Beyond that, you would also be potentially guilty of "obtaining services by deception", a criminal offence carrying a 10-year sentence. I guess there might also be a money laundering investigation. Once you have an account you're bound by its T&C's. These will probably (mine do) require a declaration of any significant changes in financial circumstances. Failure to comply here could likewise have similar serious implications.
A lot of traders do not realize that criminals with money via illegal activities will use brokerage institutions, cryptocurriencies, real estate, fake businesses to conceal (wash) their money from illegal activities including protecting their illegal money. Simply, its not the best time for a legitimate trader to not be clear about their income or self-employment. Almost all brokers will accept the phrase "Self Employed" but weird phrases like "Side Gig", "Family Funds", "Trust Fund", "Play Money" will flag your application for a closer look. You'll be surprise at how many naive "retail traders" trading their own personal money will consider themself to be a "Professional Trader" because they think its a fancy title until they make the mistake of writing that on their application as a Professional Trader. They then are shocked to be classified as a a professional trader at the higher fee category. Seriously, look at the location where this thread is placed here at the ET forum...the thread starter placed it in the Professional Trading category. A forum for CTAs, Hedge Fund Managers, RIAs, and those who aspire to be. Talk about licensing and exams, business entities, fund formation, and other aspects of being on the professional side of the business. You start posting messages in this thread (I wouldn't use real name within message posts)...you're going to catch someone's attention in a wrong way. Something to think about considering a lot of people have been posting online (e.g. twitter, facebook, linkedin) and then act surprised when they get reclassified as a professional trader without warning based upon what they've been posting online. P.S. I won't feel sorry for someone complaining in the Professional Trader section about being charged professional data fees. wrbtrader
What's a real shame is that common people are the only ones that these rules apply to, for those that know these barriers are non-existent. Governments always want to suppress the hoards while the elites do what they wish. Especially in the UK foreign nationals are not following any rules while while the sheep are willingly going to slaughter and feeling guilty if they don't follow the orders of the Crown. This just reminds me why in the US we are so gun obsessed so that our government stays in check and does not become tyrannical. In a weapon free society only the criminals will have weapons, likewise with trading account rules and regulations.