--- title: "Quantitative Trader" description: "Builds and runs data-driven trading strategies, using statistics and code to decide what to buy and sell and how to price risk in real time." canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/quantitative-trader" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Quantitative Trader **Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-2099 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-2099.01 Builds and runs data-driven trading strategies, using statistics and code to decide what to buy and sell and how to price risk in real time. Also advertised as: Quant Trader; Algorithmic Trader; Systematic Trader; Market Maker; Trading Strategist. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $81,100 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $38.99/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $48,460 to $151,490, with the middle half between $61,290 and $110,410 - **Total US employment:** 132,130 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +4.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 9,400 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 8/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 132,130 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $48,460 | | 25th | $61,290 | | 50th (median) | $81,100 | | 75th | $110,410 | | 90th | $151,490 | | Mean (average) | $93,810 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | DC | $125,110 | $113,839 | 2,460 | | ME | $109,060 | $112,375 | 1,250 | | NY | $107,490 | $99,601 | 9,750 | | MD | $101,400 | $96,609 | 3,790 | | MA | $99,970 | $94,528 | Not published by BLS | | NJ | $98,630 | $90,648 | 5,510 | | VA | $92,930 | $91,915 | 5,070 | | IN | $92,410 | $99,015 | 1,930 | | OH | $90,060 | $97,075 | 4,170 | | CO | $87,430 | $84,841 | 4,030 | | AL | $87,110 | $98,071 | 530 | | SD | $86,260 | $97,374 | 90 | | WV | $86,200 | $96,316 | 920 | | NH | $83,590 | $80,248 | 420 | | MN | $83,280 | $84,444 | 820 | 36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/quantitative-trader/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/quantitative-trader. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 137,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 143,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,600 jobs, or +4.1%. About as fast as average: 4.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Master's Degree | 60.0% | | Bachelor's Degree | 35.0% | | Doctoral Degree | 5.0% | ## What the work involves - Design trading strategies based on statistical patterns in market data - Backtest new ideas on historical data and judge whether results are robust - Monitor live strategies and adjust parameters during market hours - Manage position sizes and risk limits across instruments - Collaborate with software engineers to reduce latency in trading systems - Analyze daily profit and loss to diagnose strategy performance - Price options and other derivatives using quantitative models ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Mathematics — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Evaluation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Mathematics — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Economics and Accounting — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Computers and Electronics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Engineering and Technology — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Administration and Management — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Mathematical Reasoning — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Number Facility — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | I — Investigative | 6.67 | | C — Conventional | 5.87 | | E — Enterprising | 4.06 | | A — Artistic | 1.85 | | R — Realistic | 1.63 | | S — Social | 1.58 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | INTJ | 77.4 | | ISTJ | 74.9 | | ENTJ | 67.5 | | ESTJ | 66.0 | | ISTP | 58.9 | Best-fitting types: INTJ, ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Financial Quantitative Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-quantitative-analyst) — median $81,100 - [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230 - [Financial Risk Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-risk-specialist) — median $117,330 - [Financial and Investment Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-and-investment-analyst) — median $102,740 - [Statistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistician) — median $105,650 - [Operations Research Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operations-research-analyst) — median $88,940 - [Investment Fund Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/investment-fund-manager) — median $166,570 - [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330 - [Business Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/business-intelligence-analyst) — median $120,230 - [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/quantitative-trader