Ramit SethiRamit Sethi: The No-BS Guide to Living a Rich Life

98% of Day Traders Lose Their Money!?

26 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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1:01

In this brief segment of a YouTube video, Ramit Sethi references Chapter 6 of his book to highlight the stark reality that over 98% of day traders lose money. He frames the allure of day trading as akin to idolizing a sports star like Michael Jordan—people see the success and want to emulate it, but the underlying odds are heavily against them. A conversational participant expresses enthusiasm for the potential earnings, while Ramit counters with a cautionary perspective, emphasizing the high failure rate and the gambling-like nature of day trading.

I have seen someone make my salary in a day. I like the opportunities. I always see the successful side of it.
Let me give you a little bit of stuff you can find in chapter 6 of my book, where I talk about day traders, etc. They almost all lose their money. And I'm talking in the 98+% range. So you are seeing some of the folks kind of like seeing Michael Jordan playing basketball, being like, oh, I'd like to be like him.
Well, yeah, me too. But I'm not.
So we're seeing these freak aberrations. And day trading, sadly, has a lot of lies. It's notorious that they will go and erase their previous bets. They don't show you the things they've done. It's basically gambling. It is. I don't mind that you had $500 or something that you're playing with. I think people can have a little bit of fun with their money. The problem is that people who do that, they usually do not have containment. They go $500, then turns to $1,000, turns into recurring, turns into $5,000. And they really believe, if I get this strategy, I'll do it. You will lose your money. It's simply a matter of time.