A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing director convertible-bond trader was earning between $700,000 and $900,000 on average.[1] According to Bloomberg, an oil trader with 10 years in the business is likely to earn at least US$1-million in 2011.[2]
Traders are either professionals working in a financial institution or a corporation, or individual investors, or day traders. They buy and sell financial instruments traded in the stock markets, derivatives markets and commodity markets, comprising the stock exchanges, derivatives exchanges and the commodities exchanges. Several categories and designations for diverse kinds of traders are found in finance, these may include: