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The differences between commodity traders and brokers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a broker has an average salary of $124,861, which is higher than the $93,220 average annual salary of a commodity trader.
The top three skills for a commodity trader include commodities, commodity trading and logistics. The most important skills for a broker are brokerage, financial services, and insurance products.
| Commodity Trader | Broker | |
| Yearly salary | $93,220 | $124,861 |
| Hourly rate | $44.82 | $60.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 10,906 | 2,770 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 77% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 43 | 49 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
Commodity traders can be businesses or individuals that mainly focus on investing in oils, gold, or agricultural products. They keep up with the news on commodities to ensure that they know the different forces that determine their prices and use their technical analysis skills to decide to enter or exit trading decisions based on the current trend. These traders often use a futures contract to buy or sell commodities from any category at a predetermined price and time in the future.
Brokers can either be a firm or an individual acting as an intermediary between a securities exchange and an investor. They often provide services to individual investors and traders who cannot engage directly with security exchanges, which only accept orders from their members. They provide investors and traders with an investment plan, market intelligence, and research. They may cross-sell some financial services and products offered by their brokerage firms. They are also typically classified as discount or full-service brokers.
Commodity traders and brokers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Commodity Trader | Broker | |
| Average salary | $93,220 | $124,861 |
| Salary range | Between $55,000 And $156,000 | Between $68,000 And $227,000 |
| Highest paying City | Stamford, CT | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | New Hampshire | New York |
| Best paying company | The Citadel | Child Guidance & Family Solutions |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a commodity trader and a broker in terms of educational background:
| Commodity Trader | Broker | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 77% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Finance | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between commodity traders' and brokers' demographics:
| Commodity Trader | Broker | |
| Average age | 43 | 49 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.3% Female, 12.7% | Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 11.3% Asian, 12.2% White, 66.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 5.3% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.2% Asian, 6.9% White, 70.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 13% |