Any figure you come up with will be obsolete within a couple of weeks. The market is truly becoming global. You can find pictures of some guy in his tent in the middle of the Gobi desert trading on his cell phone.
i was reading the idiot's guide to day trading (2005 eD) and its stated that there between 300k - 750k ACTIVE traders which includes futures, shares, options, etc trading as well as time frame of day, scalp, swing and intermediate (weeks) traders. also includes all types of traders (floor, prop, direct access, broker assisted, etc) probably 750k accounts and only 300k individuals actually trading their accounts. successful traders are truly in the elite bracket as only 10% of THESE people are successful. the rest of us have to keep working at it. so only 30k - 75k SUCCESSFUL traders in the WHOLE world. WOW.
I worked in a retail brokerage for a short time. They had excellent commissions for futures, as well as good trading software. Still, 95% of the futures traders they had lost money. It was quite interesting to talk to the remaining 5%
Both Schwab and Fidelity have a hell of a lot of active accounts...a lot of these people trade regularly but just not every day...maybe two/three times a week...swing and position.... Just because a person doesn't trade 50 times a day scalping SIRI with 100 shares.... I can certainly understand 95% of people trading futures not making money.....duh....the retail trader does not stand a chance against the giant computers that trade that market.... IMHO SteveD
steveD Where did you ever get the notion that retail traders compete against computers? Retail traders use bots as a tool for speed of entry, exit. Ok, some do a little coding etc but in no way do retail traders challenge the big houses. The game the big houses play is not the game small fry like myself play. "Know the territory" was what Robert Preston said in "The Music Man". Do you think the big houses are worried about me? So if i do not do arbs etc why should i worry about them and all that computer power? They play their game and i play mine, in no way are we crossing paths and getting in each others hair. Should i simply say this indeed is a perfect example for small minnows to avoid the sharks and simply do "KISS" because the big dogs are just helping me use simple technical analysis to MY advantage? Thank You for your understanding.