How To Become A Futures Trader: What It Is and Career Path

What is a futures trader and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a futures trader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $52.7 an hour? That's $109,622 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 47,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFutures TraderUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $109,622

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.5

Growth Rate 10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.21%

Asian 12.42%

Black or African American 5.53%

Hispanic or Latino 11.52%

Unknown 4.13%

White 66.19%

Gender

female 5.86%

male 94.14%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

10.0

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.5

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a futures trader

Explore futures trader education requirements

Most common futures trader degrees

Bachelor's

81.1 %

Master's

12.9 %

Associate

3.3 %

Start to develop specific futures trader skills

Skills	Percentages
Technical Analysis	8.10%
Futures Markets	7.19%
Financial Markets	7.00%
Derivative	6.22%
Risk Management	6.09%

Research futures trader duties and responsibilities

Coordinate MBS and whole loan delivers to ensure settlements are achieve to minimize extension and pair off fees.
Trade a variety of investment vehicles including commodity futures, FOREX, equities, options and energies.
Create and report the trends of both international and domestic economy and finance status, and the trends of commodities prices.
Implement complex excel spreadsheets for derivative trading strategies.

Prepare your futures trader resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your futures trader resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a futures trader resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Futures Trader Resume templates

Build a professional Futures Trader resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Futures Trader resume.