Last updated: 17 October 2026 How many people trade, how many lose, and how big is the market? These are 22 retail trading statistics we’ve checked against official or primary sources, from the Federal Reserve, Eurostat, the FBI, the IRS, the CFTC and others. Each has a date and links to the page with the full data.
Retail investing is broad but uneven. Stocks are a record 48.23% of US households’ financial assets, yet only 19.0% of families hold shares directly, and 8.13% of EU adults traded online in a three-month window in 2025.
Most retail CFD accounts lose money: 61% to 84% at the 12 UK and EU brokers we checked, from their required risk warnings.
Fraud is the biggest reported loss. Americans reported $8.65 billion lost to investment fraud in 2025, more than any other crime type in FBI data.
About 1 in 6 prop firm evaluations pass at Topstep (16.8% of 2025 Combines) and Tradeify (17.2% of evaluation accounts), by the firms’ own unaudited figures.
How many people trade
- 48.23% of US households’ financial assets were in stocks in Q2 2026, the highest since records began in 1945. Source: Federal Reserve Z.1 Financial Accounts (FRED BOGZ1FL153064486Q), Q2 2026 data, retrieved 17 Oct 2026. Record household stock share
- 19.0% of US families owned stocks directly in 2025, down from 21.0% in 2022. Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances 2025, 2025 survey. SCF stock ownership
- 17.8% of families headed by someone under 35 owned stocks directly in 2025, down from 23.1% in 2022. Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances 2025, 2025 survey. SCF stock ownership
- The top 1% by wealth held 50.9% of US household corporate equities and mutual fund shares in Q2 2026; the bottom 50% held 0.6%. Source: Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, Q2 2026 data, downloaded 17 Oct 2026. Record household stock share
- 8.13% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU bought or sold shares, bonds or funds online in the three months before the 2025 survey, up from 4.38% in 2020. Source: Eurostat isoc_ec_ifi20, 2025 survey, retrieved 17 Oct 2026. Online share trading in Europe
- Sweden had the highest share of online investors in the EU in 2025 (28.39%); Romania the lowest (0.32%). Source: Eurostat isoc_ec_ifi20, 2025 survey, retrieved 17 Oct 2026. Online share trading in Europe
- 18.4% of US federal tax returns for 2023 (29,481,840 of 159,949,000) reported a net capital gain or loss. Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Historic Table 2, Tax year 2023, downloaded 17 Oct 2026. Capital gains by state
Losses and fraud
- Between 61% and 84% of retail CFD accounts lose money at 12 UK and EU brokers, per their regulator-mandated risk warnings (median 71.33%). Source: Broker risk warnings, checked 13 Oct 2026. CFD loss rates
- Victims reported $8.65 billion lost to investment fraud in 2025, the largest of any crime type in FBI IC3 data, from 72,984 complaints. Source: FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report, April 2026. FBI IC3 investment fraud
- Crypto investment scams accounted for $7.2 billion of reported losses in 2025, from 61,559 complaints. Source: FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report, April 2026. FBI IC3 investment fraud
- People aged 60 and over reported $3.52 billion in investment fraud losses in 2025. Source: FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report, April 2026. FBI IC3 investment fraud
Prop firms
- Topstep says 16.8% of Trading Combines started in 2025 were passed; Tradeify reports 17.2% of evaluation accounts. Only 4 of the 10 firms we track publish a pass rate. Source: Firm websites (firm-reported, unaudited), checked 2 Oct 2026. Prop firm pass rates
- Worldwide Google searches for “prop firm” rose 117% in a year. Source: Google Trends, to Sep 2026. Micro futures vs the prop firm boom
Rules and regulation
- FINRA’s $25,000 pattern day trader minimum was replaced by intraday margin standards effective 4 June 2026; brokers can phase in the change until 20 October 2027. Source: FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10, 2026. PDT rule ends
- 25 SEC documents appear in the Federal Register’s proposed-rule category for 2026; comments on Regulation Crypto Assets close 20 October 2026. Source: Federal Register API, pulled 17 Oct 2026. SEC comment deadlines
Market size and industry
- The world traded $9.51 trillion a day in foreign exchange in April 2025, up 27% from April 2022. Source: BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey, April 2025 survey. Forex market size
- Six US retail forex dealers held $470.0 million of customer money at the end of August 2026, down 7.2% in a year. Source: CFTC FCM/RFED financial data, 31 Aug 2026. US retail forex dealers
- Customer money at NinjaTrader Clearing rose 91% in a year to $586.5 million; all 75 US futures brokers held $388.09 billion in segregated customer assets. Source: CFTC FCM financial data, Aug 2026. Futures brokers’ customer money
- US securities and investment firms employed 1,174,000 people in September 2026 (seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 2.4% in a year. Source: BLS Current Employment Statistics, Sep 2026. Securities industry jobs
- 22,300 applications to start US finance and insurance businesses were filed in September 2026, up from 16,334 a year earlier (not seasonally adjusted). Source: Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics, Sep 2026, retrieved 17 Oct 2026. Finance business applications
Market behaviour
- The VIX fell over election week in 6 of 9 US midterms since 1990; the 10-year yield jumped 24 bp after the 2016 election. Source: Cboe (VIX) and Federal Reserve H.15, via FRED, retrieved 17 Oct 2026. Election-week market moves
- Since 2022 the 10-year Treasury yield moved a median 5.5 bp on CPI days against 4 bp on other days. Source: Federal Reserve H.15 and BLS release dates, 2022 to Oct 2026. CPI and jobs-day moves
Using these numbers
Every figure links to a Prop Data Lab page with the full source, method and caveats, plus a CSV. Firm-reported numbers such as pass rates are unaudited and labelled as such. We don’t include survey figures from brokers, apps or marketing reports that we couldn’t trace to a primary source. All our datasets are listed on the data hub.
More figures: India’s market regulator SEBI reports that 87.7% of individual F&O traders lost money in FY26 (India F&O trader losses), and the OSV database lists 228 malicious PyPI and npm packages posing as trading tools (fake trading libraries).
Sources
- Each statistic names its primary source and date above; the linked Prop Data Lab page gives the exact table, file or URL and when we retrieved it.
- Figures new on 17 October 2026 were re-checked against the source that day; others were re-read from our published pages on 17 October 2026.
Method
We only include figures from official statistics, regulator filings, mandated disclosures or firms’ own published numbers (labelled as such). Each is copied from a Prop Data Lab page that documents the source.
Caveats
Figures cover different countries, years and definitions, so they aren’t directly comparable with each other.
Sources revise their data; check the linked page for the latest version.
How to cite this
Prop Data Lab, “Retail Trading Statistics 2026”, updated 17 October 2026, https://propdatalab.com/retail-trading-statistics-2026/
The table and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: copy, chart or republish them, commercial use included, as long as you link back to this page.
Common questions
What percentage of retail traders lose money?
For CFDs, between 61% and 84% of retail accounts lost money at 12 UK and EU brokers, per the risk warnings regulators require (checked 13 Oct 2026). There is no official figure for all retail trading.
How many Americans own stocks?
19.0% of US families owned stocks directly in 2025 per the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances; many more hold them through retirement accounts (54.9% had one).
How much money is lost to investment scams?
$8.65 billion in 2025 was reported to the FBI's IC3 as investment fraud, from 72,984 complaints.
What percentage of prop firm traders pass?
Topstep says 16.8% of 2025 Combines passed and Tradeify 17.2% of evaluation accounts. Both figures are self-reported.