Modern Trader

July 11, 2023

In the original Modern Trader report, we challenged the common assumption that traders live luxurious city lifestyles when we uncovered that the majority of traders earn a modest household income of less than £35k per year. In 2018, the stereotype continues to fall further from reality. In the last 12 months, the average household income of online traders has dropped even lower, and our data suggests that less than 5% of modern traders actually live in a major financial city.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Since 2013, we’ve collected data on over half a million traders to produce one of the most comprehensive studies on traders’ demographics and behavior. You can access the entire report for free.

Highlights from the report:

1 in 7 online traders are female (up from 1 in 10 in 2017)
Less than 5% of traders live in a major financial city
4.3 Million people have started trading in the past year
The UK has the most online traders in Europe (1 in 100 Brits have traded online)
Herefordshire has the highest percentage of female traders (21.82%) in the UK
Millennials represent 58% of all online traders
The average British trader earns £35,742 per year
Less than 1% of online traders in the UK earn more than £75,000
Females deposit $424 less than males on average
The percentage of women traders who preferred trading cryptocurrencies compared to traditional instruments has increased from 41% to 59% in the past year

You can read the full report (and access the appendix data) here.

How does this compare to 2017?

Want to read the original Modern Trader Report? You can access the 2017 report. In 2017, we also produced a visualisation of the 9.6 Million online traders represented as 100 people, which you can see below.

Journalists & bloggers: You are welcome to reference & reuse any of the data, statistics, or images from the report. All we ask is that you credit BrokerNotes as the source with a link.

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At BrokerNotes.co, our data-driven reviews of online brokers are based on our own extensive testing of each broker's products and services as well as the qualified observations of our expert editorial team. In conjunction with our sister site, ForexBrokers.com, we’ve published well over 100,000 words of research and collected thousands of data points across hundreds of variables. Our in-depth trading guides are created with the same rigorous, data-driven approach.

Our proprietary Trust Score rating system tracks data from over 100 regulatory jurisdictions to help forex traders understand the regulatory status of their forex broker and choose a broker that they can trust.

Our editorial team is led by Steven Hatzakis, an industry veteran with decades of experience and a deep understanding of the forex market. Our team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of brokers, platforms, products, technologies, third-party trading tools, and mobile apps. We also test for the availability of high-quality educational content, actionable market research resources, and the accessibility and capabilities of mobile platforms. All of our ratings and rankings are based on the collection and validation of thousands of data points and our in-depth product testing.

Part of our testing process involves in-depth research into commissions and fees. We dive into each broker’s trading costs, such as VIP rebates, inactivity fees, custody fees, bid/ask spreads (we always strive to determine the average spreads for each broker to better serve our readers), and a variety of other fee-based data points.

When testing mobile apps or mobile products, we test on both Apple and Android devices. For Apple, we test with the iPhone XS running iOS 16, and for Android we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 13.

All of the content on BrokerNotes.co is researched, fact-checked, and edited by members of our editorial team. Our ratings and rankings are driven by our independent data collection. We may use generative AI tools to assist in some of the rote aspects of our content production processes, but the substance of our content, as well as our opinions and evaluations are based on our extensive research and product testing. Read our Generative AI policy to learn more.

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There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Learn more about foreign exchange risk.

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