Also called: Prop Trader
Trades a firm's own money (not clients') and keeps a share of the profits.
You trade futures from 8:30 to 3 with a firm's money, follow strict loss limits and review every trade at day's end with your coach.
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. New prop traders often earn little until they prove consistent profits.
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 helpful; firms train new traders.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Finance, Mathematics, Economics.
Growing about average. Competitive and volatile.
High risk for 10 years. Algorithms dominate short-term trading; firms hire fewer discretionary traders and more people who build and supervise models.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP Calculus, Computer science.
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.