Looks to me that most start trading without having any clue so kind of a gambling attitude Then it should come as no surprise that most lose
Most fall for the hype of being overnight millionaires being promoted by so called gurus. A lot of traders routinely, ignore risk management which is the most important part of trading in my opinion. If you do not control risk which you have control over, you might as well pack it in. Just look at the Wallstreet Bets Reddit group, it is being promoted as having taken down 2 large hedge funds. Point 72 and Citadel. If you believe such fairy tale, you deserve to lose all your monies. Never happened. Total losses by both hedge funds was reported at $13 billion. Do you think those rank amateur traders on Reddit have $13 billion total amongst all of them? No way in hell but, other hedge funds combined have more than that $13 billion. A handful of Reddit traders got lucky and made some monies on GME and AMC but, majority lost their monies.
A million guys with $1000 each is $1 Billion. Then with 100:1 leverage or higher they have $100 Billion in buying power.
There was an article interviewing the Reddit traders. Most of them lost their monies. There are no million guys with $1,000 each. That is from their own mouths. A few got lucky and got out with profits. Most lose most of their monies.
Of course most small traders lose money and are bag holders for the smart money. WSB are no expection. But as a co ordinated group they have massive buying power. They can keep coming back month after month, year after year, and keep throwing fresh money at trading causing new short squeezes and blowing up a few badly managed hedge funds. There are always some idiot money managers out there who are over leveraged in some illiquid risky asset.