Demographics of Day Traders
Let’s look at who’s engaged in day trading.
Day Traders by Gender
A 2007 Pew Research survey of the day trading landscape in the US found that 56% of active traders were male, against 44% of women[6].
Over 15 years later, the numbers shifted dramatically, and today 90% of all day traders are male, while only 10% are female.[7].
Day Traders by Age
America’s day traders are young, with an average age of 31 years, according to Robinhood. However, this picture does not align with Zippia’s analysis, which found that an American day trader is at least 40 years old[9].
The disparity may exist because Robinhood surveyed its own clients, and it’s a platform that’s oriented toward younger users.
Day Traders by Race
A typical American day trader is white, Zippia data shows. According to the data, 66.3% of day traders in the US are white, 11.5% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, and 5.5% Black or African American. The Native Americans make up just 0.2%.
Table 3: Day traders in the US by race
A BrokerNotes survey of the global online trading landscape (of which day trading is a subset) found that of the estimated 9.6 million online traders, 33% are Asian. North America and Europe account for around 16% apiece, and 14% are in Africa. The day trading landscape is not unique in terms of racial composition. Instead, it is just an extension of the broader online trading ecosystem[8].
Zooming out, the US data shows a declining share of white day traders. For example, Table 4 reveals that white day traders claimed a larger share of the population in 2020, at 73.73%, than in 2021, at 66.26%. Likewise, the number of Black or African American day traders is also lower than before, declining by close to one percent between 2010 and 2021. In contrast, more Asians and Hispanics/Latinos have joined the day trading space. According to Table 4, the number of Asian day traders in the US increased by over 4% between 2010 and 2021. Similarly, US Hispanic/Latino day traders increased from 10.24% in 2010 to 11.49% in 2021.
Table 4: Day trader race and ethnicity over time
Day Traders by Education Level
Most day traders are college educated. More than 95% of day traders in the US have attained an advanced level of education, with only 4% having only a high school diploma.
