Buys and sells oil, natural gas, metals, grains or coffee, often for companies that produce or use them.
You check weather in Brazil because it affects coffee prices, talk to shipping brokers about a tanker of crude oil and decide whether to lock in a price for next winter.
BLS lumps traders into securities sales agents (median ~$78k), which badly understates trading pay. Typical figures shown are salary plus bonus; bonuses depend on profits and can swing from zero to many times salary.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in finance, economics, agriculture or engineering.
Ways in: 4-year college. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Economics, Finance, Agricultural Economics, Engineering.
Growing about average. Steady; volatile markets mean bigger opportunities.
Medium risk for 10 years. Models and AI forecast prices, but physical deals for oil, metals or grain still depend on relationships, logistics and judgment.
Classes: AP Macroeconomics, AP Statistics, Geography.
Official data: O*NET occupation 41-3031.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.