Markets are important for economic growth and industrial development in a country. However, markets cannot operate without the active participation of traders. Traders encourage a market that is efficient and robust. Just like investors, traders offer a valuable service to markets, while earning money and making profits.
Traders analyze price fluctuations, buy and sell financial equipment for their clients, and monitor stock movements. They may work as financial advisors to people who can't handle their account investments and need financial management support. Traders concentrate on both long and short-term trades, depending on the client's interests and specific requirements.
A successful trader is a highly analytical professional who knows about the financial industry and how to deal with constant market changes. Once becoming a trader, you can demand a salary of $53.26 per hour, on average. Are you intrigued by such an awesome salary? Get at least a bachelor's degree in finance or business and you can earn it as a trader.
Trader Overview
Trader Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a trader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $63.05 an hour? That's $131,136 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 18,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Trader Do
There are certain skills that many traders have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, customer-service skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a trader, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.1% of traders included portfolio, while 7.5% of resumes included financial markets, and 4.2% of resumes included market research. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the trader job title. But what industry to start with? Most traders actually find jobs in the finance and manufacturing industries.
How To Become a Trader
If you're interested in becoming a trader, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 59.6% of traders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 26.7% of traders have master's degrees. Even though most traders have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a trader. When we researched the most common majors for a trader, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on trader resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a trader. In fact, many trader jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many traders also have previous career experience in roles such as equity trader or vice president.
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Trader Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of finance advisor you might progress to a role such as account executive eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior vice president, sales.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Trader
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
United Services Automobile Association (USAA) Mortgage Trader II Remote Work Environment Available) Mortgage Trader II Remote Work Environment Available) | United Services Automobile Association (USAA) United Services Automobile Association (USAA) | 01/17/2021 01/17/2021 | $66,30001/17/2021 $66,300 |
USAA Mortgage Trader II Remote Work Environment Available) Mortgage Trader II Remote Work Environment Available) | USAA USAA | 01/14/2021 01/14/2021 | $66,30001/14/2021 $66,300 |
Cybercoders Trader Trader | Cybercoders Cybercoders | 01/15/2020 01/15/2020 | $90,00001/15/2020 $90,000 |
Nv Energy Trader Trader | Nv Energy Nv Energy | 11/26/2019 11/26/2019 | $70,40011/26/2019 $70,400 |
Maverick Trading Trader Trader | Maverick Trading Maverick Trading | 09/30/2019 09/30/2019 | $100,00009/30/2019 $100,000 |
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Trader Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Trader. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Trader Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Trader resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Traders
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
5. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
6. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
7. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
8. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
9. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Public
10. New York University
New York, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Trader
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.1% of traders listed portfolio on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and customer-service skills are important as well.
- Portfolio, 15.1%
- Financial Markets, 7.5%
- Market Research, 4.2%
- Foreign Currency, 4.0%
- Bloomberg, 3.8%
- Other Skills, 65.4% See All Trader Skills
Best States For a Trader
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a trader. The best states for people in this position are New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Delaware. Traders make the most in New York with an average salary of $131,797. Whereas in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, they would average $131,464 and $128,101, respectively. While traders would only make an average of $124,321 in Delaware, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$131,797
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$124,321
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$131,464
Avg. Salary
How Do Trader Rate Their Jobs?
Top Trader Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ traders and discovered their number of trader opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Fidelity Investments was the best, especially with an average salary of $113,441. IMC Companies follows up with an average salary of $117,529, and then comes Citi with an average of $163,329. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a trader. The employers include USAA, Koch Industries, and Just Energy
Trader Videos
