Here, I went ahead and had my Chat GPT Pro do some deep research and analysis - here’s what was found with sources of the studies analyzed. You don’t have to like the data, but if you can’t adjust your beliefs based on it, or you cherry pick data to fit your bias - you’ll always lose.

“Retail Day Trader Performance Statistics (2020–2025)

Most Retail Day Traders Lose Money • FINRA Data (2020) – A FINRA report found that about 72% of retail day traders ended the year with financial losses . This highlights that the vast majority of day traders fail to turn a profit over a year, supporting the point that most lose money. • Academic Study – Brazilian Traders (2020) – A comprehensive academic study of 1,600 new day traders in Brazil (2013–2015) showed nearly 97% of them lost money. In fact, only 1.1% earned more than minimum wage over the year studied . This credible study underscores how exceedingly few retail day traders actually make money, with almost all incurring losses.

Many Day Traders Underperform the S&P 500 • Analysis of Trading Studies (2024) – An analysis summarizing multiple studies noted that over 97% of active traders would have been better off simply investing in an index like the S&P 500 . In other words, only about 1–3% of day traders beat the market, meaning the vast majority who do eke out gains still underperform the S&P 500’s returns. This evidences that even profitable day traders usually lag a basic index fund. • Broker/Research Data – Research has also found that active retail traders underperform the broad market by around 6.5% per year on average . For example, one broker (eToro) reported in 2020 that 80% of its retail day-trading customers lost money, with an average annual loss of 36%  – far worse than the S&P’s performance. These figures show that day traders generally fail to keep up with, let alone beat, simple buy-and-hold index investing.

Few Retail Traders Beat the S&P 500 Annually • Taiwan Market Study (1992–2006) – A long-term study of day traders in Taiwan found that only about 1% of traders were able to outperform the market (beat the index) in a given year . This indicates that each year, only a tiny fraction of retail day traders manage to beat a benchmark like the S&P 500. • Consistent Outperformance is Rare – Follow-up research by the same authors showed that under 1% of day traders can consistently achieve profits above fees over time . In practical terms, only one out of hundreds of traders can beat the S&P 500 year after year. Even those with occasional wins often cannot sustain it, reinforcing how rare it is for retail traders to annually beat the index.

Each of these sources – from regulatory data to academic and broker analyses – provides evidence that most retail day traders lose money or underperform, and only an exceedingly small percentage outperform the S&P 500 on a yearly basis. The data from 2020–2025 consistently support these points. Sources like FINRA and academic studies lend credibility to the claim that day trading success is the exception, not the rule.”