Trader (finance)

A trader is a person, firm, or entity in finance who buys and sells financial instruments, such as forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives, and mutual funds, indices in the capacity of agent, hedger, arbitrager, or speculator.

[1] The word "trader" appeared as early as 1863 in a universal dictionary as "trading man.

"[2] Traders work for financial institutions as foreign exchange or securities dealers in the cash market and in the futures market, or for their own account as proprietary traders.

[3] They also include stock exchange traders, but not stockbrokers or lead brokers.

Several categories and designations for diverse kinds of traders are found in finance, including: According to The Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing director convertible bond trader was earning between $700,000 and $900,000 on average.

NYSE's stock exchange traders floor c 1960, before the introduction of electronic readouts and computer screens