What defines a "Professional" trader (vs Non-Professional/Amateur)?

kmiklas · Apr 22, 2020

NYSE definition as it pertains to market data fees:

NYSE said:
“Nonprofessional Subscriber" refers to any natural person who receives market data solely for his/her personal, non-business use and who is not a “Securities Professional,” meaning that the person is...
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https://www.nyse.com/publicdocs/nyse/data/Policy-Non-ProfessionalSubscribers_PDP.pdf

stochastix · Apr 22, 2020

you are wrong, it has nothing to do with amount of money or "success". please stop spreading false info

pinetboltz said:
imho simplest way is probably by income and % income derived from trading-related activities

eg.
a) large mutual fund execution trader who makes 350k, representing 100% of his income
b) physical commodity trader who makes 1m
c) day trader in Chicago who makes 500k
==> all professional traders

as compared to
x) athlete who gets in on bitcoin and tech stocks a few times a year, makes 500k from it, representing 20% of his income
y) trust fund beneficiary who makes 800k from dividends and bond payments, not truly a trader in the sense that they are only holding onto a portfolio, but nonetheless still faces market movts
z) college kid who makes 20k trading penny stocks in the summer
==> non professional traders

ultimately maybe the designation itself of professional vs. non-professional is not as important as the actual increase in capital, because arguably (y) above is still doing better than (a) and (c)
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What defines a "Professional" trader (vs Non-Professional/Amateur)?

kmiklas

stochastix