We have now pulled together all or your fantastic responses from this year's Annual Day Trader Pulse Survey. Thank you again to everyone who filled out the questionnaire, it's great to see how you're getting on and how you've performed over the past year. What better way to benchmark your performance and see where you can improve.

And what a of year of economic turmoil it's been! We've seen interest rates increase from virtually nothing to close to 5% to combat inflation and all the talk is of a coming recession and downturn. Remember when inflation was described as transitory?

So have Day Traders been shying away from the market? Are they still making money? What were the key challenges and how do they view their future trading prospects? Read below for the eagerly anticipated results.

Trading Frequency

Back in March 2022 we had the first Fed interest rate rise. It was just 25 basis points (0.25%) but was a sign of things to come. Since then we've had 9 increases and 4 of those have been 75 basis points (0.75%). That has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons from a market point of view! But Day Traders have been taking advantage of the trading opportunities on offer. In fact, over 55% of Day Traders said they were trading several times a day, only a slight decrease on last year.

Markets

This past year we've seen a big shift in the markets being traded. Clearly the CME has been doing a good job advertising as over 75% of you now trade Futures which is an increase of 25% on last year. Forex is still the next most popular category with cryptocurrencies coming in someway behind in 3rd.

Account Size

The average trading account is up to $10,000 while 35% have accounts of over $10,000. It's clear that you know without a decent trading account you can't safely incur those inevitable losses.

Trading Tools

The value of ongoing learning is still clearly important with over 85% of you investing in training, tools or systems to improve trading performance; a similar figure to last year. The breakdown: 40% of you spent up to $1,000, just over 50% of you spent between $1,000 and $5,000 while the rest spent over $5,000. However, the satisfaction scores are down year on year, with only 15% of Day Traders saying their trading has improved a huge 60% decrease on last year along with a lowering in the number of people thinking they got value for money. The comments show us that you are prepared to pay for quality systems and training because you've tried the lower cost options and they simply don't work. Plus you want to be able to talk to somebody about your trading, you know that the context is important.

Trading Performance

53% of you thought that it was as easy to make money as last year while 40% said that it was more difficult. Overall 70% of respondents said they weren't making money or only just breaking even, an increase on the year before. But the proportion of Traders making up to 5% returns has increased year on year. The bottom line here is that those with a coherent all market strategy are making more money than before.

The Year Ahead

There has been an increase in the number of Day Traders with a neutral view on the year ahead but over 65% believe they will find opportunities to make money.

Comments

The free format comments section usually gives a great insight and this year was no different. It's clear that the ability to earn an income from Day Trading is the main draw. While the top challenges are finding a high probability trading strategy, trading with discipline and staying in control of emotions.

Overall Day Traders feel confident about the coming year and their ability to make money trading, long may it continue!

If you're interested in improving your trading or autotrading solutions then come talk to us, we will help.