Commedity brokers/traders salary? (Chicago: student loans, how much, attorneys)

[jman07]

I know it varies, but how much does the average trader down at the CME make per year with bonuses and everything? I know that your basically in business for yourself and pay is based heavily on commission. It would be great to hear from anyone who is actually in the business.

[chet everett]

There are range of employment situations. The actual title of "trader" could be applied to seat holder, employees of trading firms whose role it is to execute a trade strategy that the firm uses to hedge positions for financial or commodity based sectors (and even commodity consuming / producing firms), employes of banks and market maker firms, and smaller group of people working for broker/dealer firms that execute trades on behalf of whoever for a per trade commission.

Compensation in each of the above broad categories varies considerably as does compensation for individuals as a function of their success in executing either an individual strategy or the goals of the firm. That said it is not uncommon for even the most successful traders to have some dramatic swings in compensation. Just like hedge fund managers can sometimes have seven figure bonus one year and disappointing years that do not break out of the upper five figures traders can have multi-million pay days interspersed with a bad year with maybe total compensation in the $100k range...

The individuals that show the discipline to weather the ups and downs, stay within firm's risk management guidelines, exhibit the appropriate level of competitive driven against other firms while still "playing well with others" under the same firm's roof will see their role and base compensation grow. It is unusual for person that has been in a trading role for more than five years or so with one firm to make less than about $200K in base compensation and a slice of firm wide trading profits that (in good years) is generally around 3x that. This compares quite well with best compensated stock brokers of traditional firms, attorneys that specialize is the corporate / financial sectors and similar professionals in accounting / consulting firms. The notable difference is that with a few exceptions Chicago based traders tend NOT to have advanced degrees / ultra costly student loans. Lots of guys with Big 10 degrees, or schools like ND. Of course most of these guys (and yes there are few female traders in Chicago...) have had close connections since about 11th grade -- the pipeline from well respected high schools (public and parochial) involves of sons /teammates that start out as runners and rise up through a kind of informal system...

[SmartGXL]

It should be noted that one does not have to work at a firm in order to become a trader. I trade the markets on my own, from home, as a retail trader...and although I am (finally) profitable, it took me 10 years of studying and testing various ideas, before I finally started making real money. I treated it as a hobby (just like other people focus on things liek canoeing or skiing, I was focused on learning the markets). I also now have friends in Chicago who are professional options traders, and one of them was talking to me about getting me a full-time trading gig at his firm in Chicago. But the pay will be low to start out with; I will have to perform and if I do well, then I should get an extremely large bonus.