Polish Regulator: Retail Traders Lost $151 Million in 2018

The Polish Financial Oversight Commission (PFOC) published data this Thursday detailing the activity of retail traders in the eastern European country over the course of 2018.

This is the first time the regulator has released such data in over a year and only the second time it has provided a similar level of depth. Prior to 2017, the PFOC did provide some data, but it did not - in its published form - go into great detail.

According to the regulator, 78.9 percent of retail traders lost money last year. That number is in line with the industry standard, with most European-regulated brokers reporting that around 80 percent of their clients lose money when they trade with them.

It was also a minor decrease on 2017 when the PFOC reported that 79.7 percent of retail traders had lost money.

In total, the regulator estimated that those traders lost 576.4 million zloty ($151 million).

44,000 accounts - $151 million in losses

The Polish financial watchdog also noted that there were only 44 thousand active trading accounts in Poland in 2018.

That meant the average retail trader in Poland lost 10,040 zloty ($2,630) over the course of last year. This was a 17.5 percent decline on 2017 when the equivalent figure was 12,156 zloty ($3,184).

Those numbers are slightly misleading, however, as not all clients did lose money. Thus, if we look solely at those that lost money, the numbers are different.

The PFOC reported that 34,464 retail traders lost money in 2018. Taking into account the total losses of 576.4 million zloty, we can see that the average losing retail trader in Poland lost 16,724 zloty ($4,381) last year.