Is trading a profession? Can you trade for a living?

Is trading a real job? Yes. Thousands of people are paid to trade every day. Can you trade for a living from your laptop? That's a different and much harder question. Here's what the evidence says about both.

Trading is a profession: who does it

These are regulated, salaried careers. In the EU, staff who give investment information or advice must meet minimum knowledge and competence standards under MiFID II (ESMA guidelines ESMA/2015/1886). Professional qualifications include the CFA and CMT charters and, in Greece, the HCMC certifications for investment-services staff.

Is there proof that skill exists?

Yes, though it's rare:

• Persistent winners exist. Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean (2014) studied every day trader in Taiwan over 15 years. The top performers of one year kept earning positive returns after costs the next year. But only about 1% or less of day traders belonged to that group.
• Systematic strategies have worked for decades. Moskowitz, Ooi and Pedersen (2012) showed that a 12-month trend signal was profitable across 58 futures markets. Whole fund industries are built on this kind of research, though returns vary and some periods are poor.
• Markets adapt. Andrew Lo's Adaptive Markets Hypothesis (2004) explains why an edge can exist for a while and then fade as others copy it, which is why professionals keep researching.

And can a private person trade for a living?

The data on retail day traders is sobering:

• In Brazil, Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti (2019) followed everyone who started day trading index futures between 2013 and 2015. Of those who kept going for more than 300 days, 97% lost money, and only about 1% earned more than the minimum wage.
• In Europe, regulators found 74–89% of retail CFD accounts lose money (ESMA, 2018).

So it's possible, but it's a small minority, and the people who make it usually look very different from the Instagram image.

What the successful minority does differently

1. Treats it as a business: a written plan, records of every trade, costs counted, results reviewed monthly.
2. Risks small: 0.5–1% per trade, daily loss limits (risk management).
3. Has a tested edge: rules backtested and forward-tested, with positive expectancy after costs (trading strategy).
4. Starts part-time: keeps a job until results are consistent for a year or more, not a few good weeks.
5. Keeps learning: markets change; what worked last year may not work next year.

A realistic path

• Year 1: learn, demo trade, then trade small real money. Goal: don't lose much and build the habit.
• Year 2: refine one strategy, measure expectancy over hundreds of trades.
• Later: only consider trading as a main income if you have a long, documented track record, savings to live on, and you'd be fine if it stopped working.

Trading can be a profession and a serious skill. It's not a shortcut. Our courses start with the part that keeps you in the game: position sizing and risk.

References

• Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean (2014). The cross-section of speculator skill. Journal of Financial Markets. doi:10.1016/j.finmar.2013.05.006
• Chague, De-Losso & Giovannetti (2019). Day Trading for a Living? Working paper. SSRN 3423101
• Lo, A. (2004). The Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Journal of Portfolio Management, 30. SSRN 602222
• Moskowitz, Ooi & Pedersen (2012). Time series momentum. Journal of Financial Economics, 104(2). doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.11.003
• ESMA (2015). Guidelines for the assessment of knowledge and competence. esma.europa.eu
• ESMA (2018). Product intervention measures on CFDs. esma.europa.eu