Pay varies for traders in different streams in Britain, report reveals

A report from financial data company Emolument.com that compares remuneration among traders reveals a significant income disparity from the analyst to the managing director level.

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For a safe and reliable career path, the report recommends commodities, with analysts starting at a base salary of £44,000 and a bonus of £5,000.

Published: 3:58am, 29 Sep 2014

A report from financial data company Emolument.com that compares remuneration among traders reveals a significant income disparity from the analyst to the managing director level.

The report, which compiled data for the 2013 and 2014 salaries and bonuses of 653 fixed-income securities, currencies and commodities traders in Britain, compares the salaries of commodities, foreign exchange, credit and rates traders.

For a safe and reliable career path, the report recommends commodities, with analysts starting at a base salary of £44,000 (HK$554,500) and a bonus of £5,000.

Move up to the associate level and the base salary jumps to £76,000 with a bonus of £62,000, well above what other traders get.

The report recommends against staying in foreign exchange for too long. Although foreign exchange traders start with a relatively high base salary of £52,000 for analysts, other traders catch up quickly and managing directors in foreign exchange receive a far smaller bonus than others.

A managing director in foreign exchange gets £205,000 in bonus, less than half the £460,000 his counterpart in rates trading can get.