traders come from all sorts of background, i met some traders who do not even have university degrees. Not all traders are well paid, there are lots of them who are not making much money but still behaves like a hot shot star trader…
Generally traders are classified as:
Prop traders: who uses banks own money to invest, these guys are extremely good and well paid (in fact in almost every investment bank before the credit crunch, the highest paid employees are always prop traders). Lots prop traders have now left investment banks to run hedge funds like my boss.
Market makers: those are the traders working in trading floor of investment banks, they make money by profiting from spreads between bid/ask price, well paid at senior level with 6 years of experience, not at the low level.
Executing traders: execute trades only, don’t take on risks. sort of boring to me.