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My name is Ric and I've been a futures trader for about 5 years.
I've been attempting to find reasonably up-to-date demographics/statistics on day traders with little success. Beyond the basic Google/Bing searches, I've also looked for for such information at the SEC and other governmental websites with no real luck.
Does anybody know where I can find this type of information on active traders and day traders?
Thanks
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
The "academic hype" on this topic was during and after the tech bubble. Accordingly, most of the studies/surveys date from 1998-2005. At the moment the topic is below threshold as the public authorities have come to terms with it during the aftermath.
For the US, esp. the University of California, LA, and the UCLA Anderson School of Management have done some research over the years. I would recommend to contact the faculty to get in touch with their research.
Thanks for your response. Yeah, the only study I've found thus far, that had a small amount of demographic statistics included, was put out by the SEC back in in the year 2000.
As per your suggestion, I'll contact the University of California, LA, and the UCLA Anderson School of Management to see if they have more recent demographic data and are willing to share it. I'll report back here to let you and others know if they were able to help.
Just an update. Last Wednesday May 14th I emailed Antonio Bernardo, Professor of Finance, at the UCLA Anderson School of Management to inquire about recent studies on day trader demographics. Professor Bernardo's area of expertise includes the financial markets. As of this writing I've not received a reply. I'll update this again next week.
Another update. I've yet to hear back from Professor Bernardo, so since it's been 6 days since I contacted him, I not expecting a response.
During my continuing search I came across a study entitled, "The Cross-Section of Speculator Skill Evidence from Day Trading", co-written by Brad M. Barber Graduate School of Management University of California, Davis. This research was conducted on day traders in Taiwan. It's not demographic in nature, it's a performance based study.
Since Professor Barber is based in, and widely respected and published in the U.S. in the area of markets/finance, I emailed him today asking if he might know where I can find demographics on U.S. day traders.
I'll let you know if/when he responds. And if anyone reading this can help out, I would greatly appreciate it.
Update time; Still have not heard from either professor, so it looks like those leads appear to be dead.
I do have a couple of new leads that I'm working on. However, if anyone reading this has the information I'm searching for, or has any suggestions, please feel free to respond.
Update: still haven't found what I'm looking for, but not giving up. Have a couple of more ideas. BUT, if anyone has what I'm looking for, would love to see them post it here.