Buy and sell stocks, bonds and other securities for a bank or trading firm, using its money and its rules.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical base
$200,000
New trader
$110,000
Senior, with bonus
$450,000
The middle figure is the median base salary in 121 work visa filings for the title Trader in 2025. New traders often start near $110,000 to $150,000 base. Senior traders at top firms, with a $300,000 base plus bonus, can pass $450,000. Bonuses swing year to year.
$150,000 to $300,000
Base salaries filed for the title Trader in 2025 H-1B (US work visa) filings
Optiver filed $150,000, Citadel Securities a median of $237,500 and Jane Street $300,000. The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) counts traders in a broad group with retail brokers and financial sales agents, which shows a median of only $78,660.
Analyst, associate, vice president, director, managing director
The ladder at a bank's trading floor
Base salary rises with each step, but the bonus is what changes most. It depends on how much money your desk made, so two traders at the same level can be paid very differently. A bad year can mean almost no bonus.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college then a transfer to an in-state public university, plus the $100 Securities Industry Essentials exam, which you can take before anyone hires you. The high end is four years at in-state public rates. The trader exam itself, the Series 57 at $105, needs a firm to sponsor you, and the firm almost always pays for it.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). No paid trading course is needed or respected by employers.
A salary, not just gains
You are paid even in a month when you lose money, as long as you stay inside your limits.
Paid exams and training
Firms sponsor and pay for licence exams.
Retirement savings
A 401(k) plan, often with an employer match at banks.
Job cuts in waves
Trading desks shrink when markets are quiet or when software replaces people.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, a summer internship, then licences once a firm hires you.
High school
Grade 12
Math, statistics and economics. Mental arithmetic practice really helps.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Finance, economics, math, computer science or engineering.
Internship
1 to 2 summers
Banks and trading firms hire most graduates from their summer interns.
Licences
First few months
The SIE (Securities Industry Essentials) exam plus the Series 57, sponsored by your firm.
Trading on your own book
1 to 3 years
After training and supervision, you get your own risk limits.
Market maker
Quotes buy and sell prices all day and earns the small gap between them.
Flow trader at a bank
Trades with the bank's clients, such as pension funds and hedge funds.
Sales trader
Takes client orders by phone or chat and works them into the market.
Buy side trader
Places orders for an asset manager, trying to buy and sell without moving the price.
Mathematics
Probability and fast arithmetic come up in every interview.
Statistics
Trading is making decisions with odds, not certainty.
Economics
Interest rates and news move the markets you trade.
Computer science
Most trading now runs through software you help design.
Trading for a broker-dealer is a registered job. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) requires the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials) exam plus the Series 57 to become a securities trader representative. Sales traders who deal with clients often also need the Series 7. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) sets the market rules. Trading your own money from home needs no licence at all, and that is a different thing.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Fast mental math
Some trading firms start with a timed arithmetic test.
Probability and betting games
Interviews often include games where you make markets on dice or cards.
Coding
Python is expected on many desks, since trades run through software.
The SIE (Securities Industry Essentials) exam passed early
It costs $100 and few students bother, so it stands out.
Knowing one market well
Stocks, government bonds, currencies or commodities each work differently.
Calm under pressure
Prices move while you think.
Clear, short speech
On a trading floor you say a price in a few words.
Statistics
Knowing when a result is skill and when it is luck.
Social media trading is usually day trading: your own money, your own risk, often a course or signal group sold to you. Most people who try it lose money. A securities trader works for a firm, trades the firm's money inside strict risk limits, is supervised, and is paid a salary. The skills overlap a little. The job, the risk and the odds do not.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You arrive before 7 to read overnight news and check positions. The opening bell is the busiest hour: clients call, prices jump and your screens fill with orders. Midday is quieter, so you review risk and talk with researchers. The close is busy again. After it, you check every trade matched and plan for tomorrow. Almost everything happens through screens, not shouting on a floor.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
In 2000, Goldman Sachs had 600 cash equity traders at its New York headquarters. By 2017 it had 2, backed by about 200 computer engineers running automated trading.
The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) expects jobs in this group to grow about 1% from 2025 to 2035, and says automated trading has reduced the need for traders.
Anyone 18 or older can take the $100 Securities Industry Essentials exam, before applying anywhere. It is the first half of the trader licence.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Money and finance first, then the rest of the field. See all business and money careers.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.