Talks with big investment clients about the market and executes their trades.
You call a pension fund's trader with color on why a stock is moving, take a big order and work it carefully through the day.
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; FINRA licenses.
Ways in: 4-year college, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Finance, Economics.
Growing about average (about 3% over 10 years). Tracks securities sales agents.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. Trade execution is automated; the job survives on client relationships, but fewer sales traders are needed per desk over time.
Classes: Speech and Debate, AP Macroeconomics, AP Statistics.
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.