Also called: Stock Trader
Buys and sells stocks for a bank or fund, trying to get the best prices on huge orders.
You're at your desk by 6:30 a.m. with six screens, read overnight news, and when the market opens you're executing a client's order to buy 2 million shares without pushing the price up. Lunch is eaten at your desk.
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, math or engineering; FINRA licenses.
Ways in: 4-year college, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Finance, Economics, Mathematics.
Growing about average (about 3% over 10 years). Electronic trading has cut the number of human traders.
High risk for 10 years. Algorithms already route most stock orders; desks keep shrinking, leaving a few humans for huge block trades and risk calls.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP Calculus, AP Macroeconomics.
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.