The Screenshot They Didn't Show You

The Highlight Reel

There's a growing trend online — slick social media posts showing massive "profits" from day trading, forex, or spread betting. Screenshots of green numbers. Lamborghinis. Financial freedom in 90 days. It looks incredible. But what you're not seeing is the other side of the story — and that side is where the vast majority of people end up.

Let's be clear about what we're talking about and why it's fundamentally different from investing.

What Investing Actually Is

When you invest — whether into a pension, an ISA, or a general investment account — you're buying a share of real businesses or lending money to governments and companies through bonds. You own something. Over time, those businesses grow, pay dividends, and create value. The long-run return of global equity markets has historically been positive, because the global economy grows over time.

Investing is boring. It's supposed to be. You put money in, you leave it alone for years or decades, and the compounding does the work. That's the entire point.

What Day Trading, Forex, and Spread Betting Actually Are

Day trading means buying and selling financial instruments within the same day — or over very short periods — trying to profit from small price movements. Forex trading is speculating on currency pairs. Spread betting is placing leveraged bets on whether a price will go up or down. In most of these cases, you don't own anything. You're simply betting on short-term price direction.

This is not investing. This is speculation. And for most people, it functions exactly like gambling.

Here's why:

It's a zero-sum game (or worse). When you invest in the stock market long-term, the overall pie grows. Everyone can win. When you day trade or spread bet, for every winner there must be a loser on the other side of the trade. Factor in the fees, spreads, and overnight financing charges, and it's actually a negative-sum game — the house always takes a cut.

You're up against professionals. The person on the other side of your trade is likely a hedge fund, an algorithm, or an institutional desk with faster data, better tools, and decades of experience. It's like walking into a poker tournament where every other seat is filled by a world champion.

Leverage magnifies losses. Spread betting and forex platforms offer leverage — sometimes 30:1 or more. That means a 3% move against you wipes out your entire position. Leverage is what makes the screenshots look spectacular. It's also what makes the losses catastrophic.

The Number the Platforms Have to Tell You (But Hope You'll Ignore)

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority requires CFD and spread betting providers to disclose what percentage of their retail clients lose money. Go and look at any regulated platform's website. You'll find figures like these:

IG, one of the largest and most established platforms in the UK, states that 68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with them.

Other platforms routinely report figures of 74%, 78%, even 82%.

Some estimates from academic research put the figure even higher — studies have suggested that over a longer timeframe, closer to 90% of retail day traders lose money overall. The platforms are required to publish these figures. They're right there on the homepage. And yet people still sign up convinced they'll be in the winning minority.

The Social Media Trap

This is where it gets particularly harmful. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are full of people showing off trading "wins." Screenshots of account balances. Videos of profits rolling in. What they never show you is the losing trades, the blown accounts, the money borrowed to fund the next bet.

Louis Theroux's recent documentary on the manosphere highlighted exactly this world — young men being drawn in by online influencers selling a lifestyle of fast money, flashy cars, and financial shortcuts. Trading and crypto are central to that pitch. The message is always the same: the system is rigged, traditional careers are a mug's game, and the only way to get ahead is to trade your way out. It's a compelling story. It's also one that leaves most people worse off.

Some of these people are genuinely profitable — for now. Many are making money not from trading but from selling courses, affiliate links, and signals subscriptions to the people watching their content. The real product isn't the trade. It's you.

It preys on people who are frustrated with their financial situation and looking for a shortcut. There is no shortcut.

If Someone Is Determined to Try It

We'd strongly encourage anyone to think carefully before going down this route. But if someone is absolutely set on it, the single most important thing is to use a properly regulated, reputable platform — something like IG, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Why does this matter? Because the internet is also full of unregulated "brokers" and outright scams. People get drawn into schemes through WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels, and social media DMs promising guaranteed returns. They deposit money into platforms that look professional but have no regulation, no client money protection, and no way to get your funds back when things go wrong.

If a platform isn't regulated by the FCA, walk away. If someone is pressuring you to deposit money quickly, walk away. If the returns sound too good to be true, they are.

The Boring Truth

Building wealth is slow. It comes from spending less than you earn, investing consistently into diversified funds, and giving it time. It's not exciting. Nobody is going to film a TikTok about putting £500 a month into a global index tracker inside an ISA. But that's the approach that actually works for the vast majority of people.

Day trading and spread betting have far more in common with walking into a casino than they do with building a pension. The sooner that's understood, the fewer people will get hurt.

Further Reading

• Barber, B., Lee, Y., Liu, Y., and Odean, T. (2019). "Day Trading for a Living?" A study of Brazilian futures traders finding that 97% of persistent day traders lost money.
• Financial Conduct Authority. "Restricting contract for difference products sold to retail clients." Policy Statement PS19/18. fca.org.uk
• IG Group. "68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider." Risk warning displayed on ig.com as required by the FCA.
• Theroux, L. (2025). Selling the Dream. A documentary exploring the manosphere and the role of trading and crypto in online influencer culture.
• Odean, T. (1999). "Do Investors Trade Too Much?" American Economic Review, 89(5), 1279–1298.