I'm starting to think that < 1 % of people on elitetrader are actually profitable

Quote from FullyArticulate:

Why would only winning traders need to file taxes? In my bad years, I can defer losses against later winnings. Perhaps the difference is professional vs. amateur instead of winning vs. losing?

Or, elitetrader has posters that don't assume everyone is in a single country. Frankly, tax laws in the UK really don't interest me, as I'm sure IRS rules don't interest UK residents.
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isn't that only allowed to be like 3k a year of past losses that you can apply?
 
Find a CPA that you know through someone. They will put you in front of others and PAY THEM WELL.

My CPA has given me incredible advice on many occasions, from owning cars to making small changes in my trading routine that have huge benefits.
 
The best people to answer this question are people on the broking side of the business... they have access to all the accounts.

Anyone from the broking side (or used to work on the broking side) wish to add any stats here...??

I knew a guy who was very friendly with a guy who was senior at a large retail brokerage... The numbers I heard were indeed around the 90% of retail traders lose money number...
 
Quote from cold:

so far in financial life I am a broke loser
but what really amuses me
I happen to know that 98% here are even bigger losers than me
I at least have the knowledge, most importantly of who I am, and then the world :eek:
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Don't sell yourself short your a bigger loser then you credit yourself.
 
Quote from Sky123987:

I have heard that ~90% of traders are unprofitable, however I'm really starting to question that 90%.

The reason why I believe this is because there is very very little discussed regarding taxes. I can barely find useful posts regarding taxes and if I post a questions regarding taxes... same situtation. However the post titled "why are traders so ugly and fat" gets countless replys

So if no one really knows anything about taxes, that's probably because no one has to file trading taxes.

My guess is < 1 % of traders are profitable
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you are absolutely correct, although i think its a little bigger than 1%
 
Quote from Sky123987:

I have heard that ~90% of traders are unprofitable, however I'm really starting to question that 90%.

The reason why I believe this is because there is very very little discussed regarding taxes. I can barely find useful posts regarding taxes and if I post a questions regarding taxes... same situtation. However the post titled "why are traders so ugly and fat" gets countless replys

So if no one really knows anything about taxes, that's probably because no one has to file trading taxes.

My guess is < 1 % of traders are profitable
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I think people dont like talking about taxes in general.

Even if you are profitable and pay your full taxes. Its not a pleasant subject.

Even if you have a scheme that means you pay little or no tax you probably dont want to talk about it either..
 
Quote from cold:
is that regardless of country, if there were more REAL traders here, there would be more tax discussion overall

You're an idiot. "Winners" are not the only ones that file taxes. Nor are "REAL traders". Losers that trade part time ALSO file taxes.

Look up non sequitur and marvel at your brilliance.

Besides, do I really want tax advice from Elitetrader? I want tax advice from my accountant. As apparently you can't afford an accountant such that you need to be trolling message boards looking for advice and complaining when you don't get it, what does that say about your "real trader" status?

AND finally, if you have "bad" years, well you just told us of your trading knowledge, didn't you

STOP THE PRESSES. Trading for several decades might lead to having more than one losing year! What a CONCEPT. Obviously someone with trading knowledge NEVER loses.

Welcome to my ignore list, idiot.
 
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