The Face of the Forex Trader

Initial results from a wide survey of forex traders has been released and has interesting findings about the reasons for choosing forex, reasons for choosing brokers, the most popular pairs, and lots more . Here are the key findings:

The survey covered 3000 traders from all over the world, and was conducted September 2010.

Findings:

• The number one reason for trading is that forex trading has the best potential for return in up and down markets (34%).
• EUR/USD is by far the most popular forex pair (51%). GBP/USD is second with 18%. AUD/USD third with 6%.
• 64% prefer a forex broker over a bank.
• Reliability is most important factor for choosing a trading platform (40%), spread is second (29%).
• 30% of respondent “stick their nose to the screen” – trade over 15 hours/week. I believe that forex is more addictive.
• 84% of traders trade from home.
• 40% trade full time
• Only a third of traders use mobile phones for trading.
• 45% of traders spend over $1000 in educational resources related to trading.
• 33% get their information from blogs, 38% from forums, 34% from their brokers.
• 63% of traders focus only on forex.
• 90% are individual traders.

* Numbers have been rounded.

More data can be found here

Methodology of the CitiFX survey: Over 3000 traders responded to an online survey that was posted from September 8 to October 8, 2010 on four high-traffic FX websites: FXstreet.com, ActionForex, ForexPros and ForexTV. The 25-question survey took approximately 5 minutes to complete. The survey results are tabulated in two parts, this is part one about Traders’ Profile, Environment, Resources and Technology.

Where are you in the statistics?

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