How Much Do Day Traders Make? What the Data Shows, and What a Living Takes
What day traders actually make, measured: what salary pages count, what the winners earned in Taiwan and Brazil, what the per-day and per-month targets imply, and the capital, tax and benefits a living from trading takes.
Day traders don't get a salary. What they make is the return on their own account after costs and tax, and for most of them that's a loss. So the honest answer to "how much do day traders make?" is a distribution: a big losing majority, a thin profitable tail, and a handful who out-earn an ordinary job.
Quick Answer
Most day traders lose money, and no salary covers the losses. On the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1992 to 2006, about 13% of day traders made a profit after fees in a typical year, and under 1% did it consistently (Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean). In Brazil, of 1,551 people who day traded index futures for more than 300 days, 97% lost money and 17 earned more than the minimum wage. Can you make a living day trading? A few people do, on capital sized to their living costs.
What Do Day Trader Salary Figures Actually Measure?
Day trader salary figures mostly measure employees, not people trading their own money, and even those wobble. Glassdoor's near-identical "Day Trader" and "Day Traders" pages list the same 50 salaries, all self-reported, yet as of October 2026 its model shows a $210K median total pay on one and $361K on the other. The 10 most recent self-reports on both pages run from $29K to $210K. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no day-trader occupation. The closest, securities, commodities and financial services sales agents, had a $78,660 median wage in May 2025.
| Route | Whose capital | How you get paid | Who carries the losses | What the data says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desk job at a firm | The firm's | Salary plus bonus | The firm | No BLS day-trader category. Nearest occupation: $78,660 median wage (May 2025) |
| Prop-firm account | The firm's, after a paid evaluation | A profit split, as payouts | You pay the fees. The firm sets loss limits | Topstep, 2025: 33.3% at its Funded Level got a payout; 0.71% of Express Funded traders went live (its own disclosure, simulated and live). Not net of fees |
| Your own account | Yours | The account's return, after costs and tax | You, all of them | Taiwan, 1992 to 2006: about 13% profitable after fees in a typical year, under 1% consistently |
Prop firms swap the capital problem for an evaluation fee (see what prop firm pass rates leave out). The rest of this post is about the third row.
How Much Do Profitable Day Traders Make?
The best measured answer is from Taiwan. In Do Individual Day Traders Make Money?, Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean found the 393 accounts in the top profit group (1995 to 1999) averaged NT$7,532 a day. Over a 280-day trading year that's about NT$2.1 million, against Taiwan's 1999 mean income of NT$390,000. Real money, for a few hundred accounts.
Typical winners made far less. The top group's mean six-month profit was over NT$1 million and its median NT$125,761, so the mean ran more than eight times the median by our math. In Brazil, the best of the 1,551 persistent traders averaged US$310 a day, and the eight who out-earned a bank teller had daily standard deviations of US$632 to US$3,308. On a normal day their P&L swung by more than their average day earned.
US data is older and narrower. Jordan and Diltz (2003), studying a sample of US day traders, found about 20% of their sample "more than marginally profitable." Garvey and Murphy counted 578 of 1,146 accounts profitable after commissions, over 68 trading days in 2000 at one broker, proprietary accounts included. NASAA's 1999 report found at least 70% losing, from one branch office's accounts. Each study's scope is in the full odds table.
How Much Do Day Traders Make per Day and per Month?
No regulator or study publishes an average daily income for US retail day traders. The average daily figures that exist are losses. Brazil's persistent traders lost US$48.81 a day on average (median loss US$23.21), and the average account in Taiwan's heaviest day-trading group lost NT$8,443 a day, both after fees. The per-day and per-month numbers online are targets. Here's what they imply.
| Target | What it means | Over a year |
|---|---|---|
| $100 a day on $10,000 | 1% of the account every session | About 12 times the account, compounded over 2026's 251 sessions |
| 1% to 2% a day | A daily pace some sites call normal | About 12 to 144 times the account, compounded |
| 5% a month | The low end of "5% to 10% a month" | About +80% a year |
| 10% a month | The high end | About +214% a year |
| $4,000 to $12,000 a month | Quoted online as an average income | An $80,000 to $240,000 account making 5% every month |
| S&P 500, for scale | No target, just the market | About 10% a year, 1928 to 2025, dividends in (Damodaran, NYU Stern) |
Risk per trade sets the ceiling. At 1% risk, a $10,000 account risks $100 a trade, so $100 a day means netting a full 1R every session on average, with every red day made back on top. Real accounts have red days, which is what daily risk rules are for. On margin, FINRA says to be prepared to lose some of, and potentially more than, what you deposit. The 2026 session count comes from how many trading days are in a year.
Can You Make a Living Day Trading?
Rarely, and it takes more capital than most people expect. The median US full-time wage is $1,232 a week, about $64,064 a year (BLS, third quarter of 2026). By our math, replacing it takes about $320,000 at 20% a year, $640,000 at 10%, or $1.6 million at a 4% draw, before tax, every year.
That's our account-size table run backwards, where $50,000 a year at a 4% draw needs about $1.25 million.
One study is named after the question: "Day trading for a living?" Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti followed all 19,646 people who started day trading mini-index futures in Brazil from 2013 to 2015. Of those, 1,551 day traded on more than 300 days, and 47 of them made a profit after fees. Seventeen beat Brazil's minimum wage (US$16 a day). Eight beat a bank teller's starting salary (US$54 a day).
Day trading for a living? Brazil, starters from 2013 to 2015
If you still want to try, four conditions come first. Capital sized to your costs, from the math above. Six to 12 months of living costs outside the account, so a bad month doesn't force a withdrawal or a bigger bet. A written withdrawal rule, because every dollar you take out stops compounding, and the dream runs on compounding. Outside income until your record runs to years.
The 2026 rule change only lowered the entry ticket. FINRA replaced the pattern day trader rule and its $25,000 minimum with intraday margin standards on June 4, 2026, though brokers may keep the old rule until October 20, 2027. Margin takes $2,000 in equity, and futures were never under the PDT rule. A $2,000 account makes the test cheaper. The capital a living takes stays where it was. How the PDT rule was replaced has the dates.
What Does Trading Income Leave Out That a Paycheck Includes?
A paycheck shows up every two weeks. Trading income comes in lumps, with losing months between, and carries no employer health plan, retirement match or paid leave. It has to buy all of that before it matches a $64,064 job.
Costs come out first. Commissions, spreads and slippage hit every trade, and data, platforms and courses bill monthly. The Brazil figures are net of exchange and brokerage fees but not tax, courses or platforms, so real results were worse. India's regulator, SEBI, measured the bite in its FY23 intraday data: costs added 57% to loss-makers' losses and took 19% of profit-makers' trading profits. How costs move your breakeven runs the math.
Then US tax. Short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income, and regulated futures are taxed 60% long-term and 40% short-term whatever the hold. Per IRS Topic 429, a trader's gains aren't subject to self-employment tax, which also means they build no Social Security earnings record. IRA contributions need compensation, such as wages or self-employment income, so check before counting on trading gains to fund one. Profitable years can mean quarterly estimated payments, though the prior-year safe harbor often covers the first one. See how day trading gains are taxed, trader status and self-employment tax and the trader tax status rules. UK, EU and Canadian rules differ.
Why Do Online Day Trading Income Numbers Look So High?
Because you see the survivors. Green days get posted, blown accounts close quietly, and most pages ranking for this question sell a course, a brokerage account or a prop evaluation. The SEC warned in 1999 that "'educational' seminars, classes, and books about day trading may not be objective." In 2022 the FTC sued a day-trading course seller over its earnings claims. According to the complaint, "the vast majority of customer accounts actually lost money." Sellers' founder stories often carry a "not typical" label. Believe the label.
Some folklore doesn't trace at all. The "9 out of 10 lose" line isn't in NASAA's 1999 report, which said at least 70%, from one branch office. EU and UK regulator numbers cover leveraged CFDs. ESMA says 74% to 89% of retail CFD accounts typically lose money (2018), and the FCA found over 80% of CFD clients lost money over a year (2016).
What Should a Beginner Expect to Make in the First Year?
Expect a loss, or break-even if it goes well. No study measures how long profitability takes, and the Brazil paper found "no evidence of learning by day trading" (more in why day trading is hard to learn). The beginner-to-pro income tiers on other pages are opinion, with no data behind them.
The flexibility is real, but the hours are the market's (9:30am to 4:00pm ET for US stocks), and it's stressful, lonely work. Check how many hours day trading takes and what each pro costs you before planning a life around it. Trying anyway? Find your own number cheaply first.
- Cap itWrite down a dollar cap, an end date and a quit rule before you fund anything.
- PracticeTrade a simulator or tiny size first. Paper vs live trading covers what a simulator won't teach you.
- GradeGrade every setup before you'd take it, and skip the weak ones. A skipped trade can't lose money.
- JournalLog results in R, not dollars, in a trading journal template, so a change in size can't hide whether the setup works.
- CompareAt the end date, compare the account with an index fund, after costs.
Before you fund it, grade the setups you'd take.
SnapPChart reads one chart screenshot and grades the setup A+ to F with a take, wait or skip read. It reads the chart only, not news or the order book, and it doesn't predict income. Your first grade is free: a summarized analysis of your chart and a graded second opinion on whether to take it, wait or pass. Entry, stop, targets and the trade plan come with a paid plan.
Grade a setup you'd takeA grade won't make day trading pay or move the base rates. It holds step three to one standard. The AI chart analysis reads one screenshot. First and second pullbacks to the 9/20 EMA or VWAP score well, the setup a momentum trading strategy waits for, while third pullbacks, retraces over 50% and stretched entries count against it. It doesn't scan the market, track your P&L or place trades, and what AI can't see on a chart covers the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you make $100 a day day trading?
On some days, sure. As an average, it depends on the account. On $10,000 it's 1% a session, a pace almost nobody keeps. At 0.25% a day, which still compounds to about 1.9 times the account in a year, it takes $40,000 (our math).
Can you make $1,000 a day day trading?
That's about $251,000 over 251 sessions. Even at 1% a day it takes a $100,000 account, and at a steadier 0.25% a day, $400,000 (our math). For scale, the best of Brazil's 1,551 persistent day traders averaged US$310 a day.
Do prop firm traders make more than self-funded traders?
They risk less of their own money, which isn't the same thing. In Topstep's 2025 figures (simulated and live combined), 51.8% of participants reached its Funded Level and 33.3% of those got a payout, so roughly 17% were paid at all, by our math. The disclosure gives no payout sizes and doesn't net out fees.
How much money do you need to start day trading in 2026?
FINRA's floor for trading on margin is $2,000 in equity, and brokers can ask for more. Brokers can keep the old $25,000 pattern day trader minimum until October 20, 2027, and if your account still counts day trades, yours has. A cash account can trade with less, using settled funds only.
Is day trading income self-employment income?
Not for US federal tax. The IRS says a trader's gains from selling securities aren't subject to self-employment tax, even for someone who qualifies as a trader. Calling yourself a day trader changes nothing: you're an investor for tax unless the trading is substantial, regular and aimed at daily price moves.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not financial, investment or tax advice. Return targets, capital figures and per-day math are our arithmetic, not forecasts or records of anyone's results. Study figures carry the market, years and sample stated next to them, and Topstep's are its own disclosure, from simulated and live trading combined. Tax treatment depends on where you live and your status, so check with a qualified tax professional. Brokers may move to FINRA's intraday margin standards at any point up to October 20, 2027, so confirm with yours. Day trading carries a substantial risk of loss, and on margin you can lose more than you deposit. SnapPChart grades one chart screenshot you upload, A+ to F, with a take, wait or skip read. It reads no news, fundamentals or order book, does not scan the market, track your account or P&L, or place trades, and does not predict income or outcomes.
Writes about AI-assisted day trading, technical analysis, and the systems traders actually use to stay disciplined.
Count the trades you'd skip before you count the income.
SnapPChart grades one chart screenshot from A+ to F with a take, wait or skip read. It reads the chart only, not news, fundamentals or the order book, and it doesn't predict returns. Your first grade is free: a summarized analysis of your chart and a graded second opinion on whether to take it, wait or pass. Entry, stop, targets and the trade plan come with a paid plan.