A profitable-client percentage needs a population, period and method. UKNF's report provides one defined Polish supervisory dataset; it is not a worldwide census of currency traders. The useful lesson is how to read its figures without turning them into personal odds or an explanation of every result.

What the UKNF table measures

The report for 2025, table 1 covers Polish and foreign residents using data from supervised entities. Results are realised net client results for a calendar year. Its “Forex” category includes OTC derivatives beyond currency pairs, and the reported profit/loss percentages exclude clients with neither profit nor loss.

In that table, 27.8% recorded a profit and 72.2% a loss for 2025. Table 2, for Polish residents only, reports different percentages. A client is not automatically interchangeable with an account in another source. The diagram below uses table 1's aggregate money totals; it does not describe a typical individual's loss.

Report data

Client percentages and money totals measure different things

Scroll sideways to see the full diagram

UKNF realised profit and loss totals for 2025UKNF table 1 covers Polish and foreign residents at supervised firms. Realised profits total 740,028,152 PLN and losses total minus 2,680,482,791 PLN. Bar lengths show absolute amounts on one scale from zero to 3 billion PLN. Losses divided by profits are about 3.62: a money ratio, not a probability.UKNF · 2025 · table 1Polish and foreign residentsTotal profits: +740,028,152 PLNTotal losses: −2,680,482,791 PLN0123Bar length: amount in billion PLNLosses / profits ≈ 3.62A ratio of amounts, not client shares.

The reported amounts give 2,680,482,791 / 740,028,152 ≈ 3.62. Profits less losses total −1,940,454,639 PLN. A shared scale shows money totals that the 72.2% losing-client figure cannot describe. Source: UKNF, 2025 results, table 1.

Actual table 1 data from supervised firms in Poland, covering Polish and foreign residents and each client's net realised result for the calendar year. The report's 'Forex' category includes OTC derivatives beyond currency pairs. The 72.2% share excludes clients with neither a profit nor a loss. Bars show absolute amounts; labels give the signs. These totals are neither an individual's forecast nor a typical account loss.

A provider warning is another measure

ESMA's March 2018 announcement cites historical national analyses of retail CFD account losses. It should not be presented as a current world loss rate or the same population as the UKNF table. A provider's warning follows the applicable product-intervention rules and calculation method.

For example, the UK FCA retail CFD rules specify a preceding-twelve-month account measure recalculated quarterly, including realised and unrealised results and relevant costs. This differs from a calendar-year realised client measure. Check the jurisdiction and scope instead of assuming every European or worldwide firm follows an identical rule.

What the tables do not prove

A losing-client percentage does not identify the cause of an individual's loss. Trading costs reduce a result, and excessive exposure can accelerate losses; see the leverage example. But a cost alone does not establish that every trade has negative expectancy.

Likewise, revenge trading is a process to examine, rather than a behaviour measured for each client in this table. Similar aggregate percentages across years do not establish that the same people lost repeatedly or that one cause explains the series.

A positive result is not proof of an income stream

The sign of a yearly result does not tell you whether its amount covers living expenses, whether withdrawals were sustainable or whether the strategy will remain profitable. Nor does it prove that all profitable clients traded less often or used the same risk rule.

Risk controls and testing an edge are separate tasks. Record assumptions and results; a disciplined process improves auditability but does not guarantee a particular outcome.

Check the denominator before comparing percentages

Use a fictional sample of 1,000 clients: 250 profitable, 650 losing and 100 with a zero result. Profitable clients are 25% of all 1,000, but 250 / 900 ≈ 27.78% when zero results are excluded. The percentage rises without another client making money.

Separate this exercise from the actual report. For other questions, read the trading-and-gambling comparison, income from forex and how to assess reported trader earnings. The regulations section gives broader context.

Read one table carefully

Write its population, period, instrument scope, unit of analysis and treatment of open and zero results. Keep percentages, average amounts and aggregate money ratios separate. A ratio of total losses to total profits is not the ratio of losing clients to profitable clients.

For your own account, reconcile price results and recorded costs without adding fees twice. Use the full history, including deviations and losses. A regulatory cohort is a useful reference; it is neither a personal forecast nor evidence that a particular learning schedule will make you profitable.