I'm trying to find salaries and bonuses as a trader at big institutions. I check salary websites and know one bond trader but those numbers vary wildly. I'm looking for realistic salaries across the board from any different kind of trader in any sector. I'm a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill looking at careers. I've read alot in the forums that you should not even think about the money if your are thinking about trading. But I say anything worth doing is not easy and I have high medical expenses to worry about so money is an important issue when looking for a career.
Actual traders at big firms have been around a long time and have worked their way up the ladder. Their salaries are way up there... around the mid six-digit range.. all the way to millions depending on what they manage. They didn't get there just by submitting a resume straight out of college. And don't forget the big fat bonus checks they get. Many traders at GS got seven-figure bonuses this year.
And what exactly is it that these traders DO?... I've herd different things. Do they make their OWN trading decisions, with their OWN method and holding period, with their own risk/reward tolerance?? or do they just simply buy and sell x number of shares because their boss wants 250k shares of goog?. Because if this is the case, then shit, anyone could do that.
They could be anything.... market makers, fund managers, private equity manager, etc. Transacting large blocks of stock is not as easy as you think. Any average joe on these boards knows how to buy/sell whatever security. But not everyone knows how to, for example, sell 10mil shares of GOOG in the open market.
only reason why they get bonuses is when they make the firm money unprofitable traders get nada.. so its not that easy
Its good to think ahead to 2010 when you will be starting work. Group insurance will be helping you out in all probability. Making money is the great part of trading. Any HP 10B will tell you that. The most money is made using money to make money. So as you take college courses, you will run into some stuff on how businesses work. If you take the trouble, think of yourself as a business. You get income from working at a job and you use the money in your business plan. What your business does is use money to make money. In the next three years get this stuff down so you can see what kind of job will supply your personal business (you) with the capital for you to be trading. About 10 to 15 years out, you will see that others will want to give you capital to trade for them, all based on your personal track record. At this time, you can just say no thanks. There is one piece missing. You do not know anything about trading. This is not ordinarily given away and it takes a while to get when it is being given to you. There is also a long line of people in front of you going the same way. You have to pass them to get to the front of the line. For humor, do you know any attractive gals whose families have been in the industry for three generations? I don't think they are going to school outside of the boundaries of New England. Learn to ski and check out the winter homes around the base at Stowe. Look for plain Janes with great equipment. You are now at the front of the line but you do not have to trade as a job. Caveat. Learning to trade is relatively easy if you have no prior knowledge. Picking the better way to trade is even easier. So far you have not been exposed to any good trading approaches.
Entry Level Trading Positions start at 55-65 with a 10k sign-on and a discretionary end of year bonus that could range from 0-60 (Not really sure on this, bankers got as much as 75k last year but trading analysts make a bit less) You won't be trading; you will be an analyst for 2-4 years or forever; you may never get promoted to trade. You are basically a trading assistant.
trader monthly had a spread of the different desks by position for ave salaries and bonuses in one of their last few issues. seems to be what you were looking for, but unfortunately i already threw mine out. you should see if you could locate a back issue though. but the above post with 55-60ish is about right for starting out, then youll get paid the least possible to keep you from leaving. so if thats 8.5 mil then thats what youll get, or you could go somewhere else. it not very scientific, but you should locate that artical for the averages