Day Trading Salaries
- Day traders are classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a type of securities and commodities sales agent, who earned an average salary of $95,130 as of May 2010. However, day traders typically see drastic fluctuations in earnings. Be a Day Trader reports that new traders usually experience anywhere from a daily loss of $200 to a daily profit of $200, while experienced, highly skilled day traders earned more than $5,000 a day and the "top losers" lost between $1,000 and $5,000 a day.
- Day traders may work independently or on behalf of firms and companies, though in either case, their earnings depend on the stocks they choose. Along with all securities sales agents, day traders working in the industry of securities and commodity contracts intermediation -- or acting as a "middle man" between two entities -- earned an average salary of $111,160 as of 2010, while the bureau reports that those working in depository credit intermediation earned significantly less at $63,150 a year on average. Traders and sales agents working in financial-investment activities earned an average of $115,790 a year, and those employed by the management of companies and enterprises earned an average of $101,980 a year.
- New York had the highest concentration of securities sales agents, including currency day traders, as of 2010, offering a salary average of $129,620 a year. The only state with a higher salary average was Connecticut at $157,640 annually. Bridgeport, Connecticut was the highest paying metropolitan area in the country for day traders and sales agents with a salary average of $168,100 a year, followed by San Francisco with an average of $139,730.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warns that advertising claims promising quick and/or high profits from day trading are likely false, and that day trading is "extremely stressful and expensive." New traders usually lose money in their first few months, and in many cases never manage to generate a steady profit.