How much I got paid as a trader
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Description
I'm pretty sure my salary was 36k when I first started, which was a good salary for the time. I mean, it's not even a bad salary even now. P&L is profit and loss, and it's the only thing that matters in the world if you're a trader, basically. And every single day, every week, every month, every year, your individual P&L is calculated. Everyone's individual P&L is calculated. And it goes around on a spreadsheet every day. So every day you get a spreadsheet that tells you every single trader's P&L, which obviously means like if you're the best trader, you're the If you're losing money, everybody can see. It's very clear who the best is and it's very clear who the worst is. And that starts to become how you interact with other people and it starts to become how you see other people. There's this kind of beautiful fairness to it, in a weird way. And I think there's not a lot of places in the world other than sort of the football pitch, where a kid like me, from nowhere, can come in and compete with all of these multi-millionaires from rich families and be like the guy at 24.
The short centers on the speaker's reflection about trader salaries and the performance based pay structure that defined his early career. He recalls starting salary around 36k, framed as a solid wage for the era, and emphasizes that personal P&L (profit and loss) is the sole metric that matters for traders. Each day a spreadsheet updates every trader's P&L, making both top performers and underperformers visible to all, which the speaker describes as creating a clear, almost objective hierarchy. This transparency influences how traders interact with one another, reinforcing a sense of fairness and accountability on the trading floor. The narrative contrasts a humble background with the opportunity to compete against multi-millionaires, highlighting a rare path where someone from nowhere can rise to prominence at a relatively young age. Overall, the piece uses a personal career arc to comment on equity, opportunity, and the performance-driven culture in trading.
Topics · finance · economics · wealth inequality · trading · career in finance · personal finance