What Percentage of Forex Traders Lose Money?

By Dan Blystone | Updated January 29 2025

Trading the financial markets is notoriously difficult and many wonder what percentage of forex traders fail.

I was able to gather the data because forex and CFD brokers are now required by ESMA (the European Securities and Markets Authority) to disclose the percentage of their clients that lose money. Brokers even have to disclose the percentage of losing traders in their advertisments.

The table below breaks down the official statistics from 25 leading brokers.

BrokerPercentage of Retail Traders that Lose Money
FXOpen60%
FXCM63%
Avatrade63%
Capital.com63%
Fineco64%
RoboMarkets65%
CMC Markets69%
City Index70%
IG70%
Eightcap70%
Dukascopy71%
Trade Nation73%
HYCM74%
Tickmill74%
IQ Option75%
XM75%
FXPro75%
Pepperstone75%
XTB75%
OANDA76%
CPT Markets79%
Skilling80%
Libertex80%
Plus50080%
ActivTrades83%
The requirement for brokers to show the percentage of their clients losing money dates back to January 2018, when the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) rolled out the European MiFID II directive.