Who is a trader and what do they do

Updated: 7 November 2026

In short: A trader buys and sells assets on financial markets to profit from price changes. The job is to find situations on the chart with a clear risk, decide in advance where to enter and exit, and keep a record of trades.

A trader's day

Morning — marking up charts: trend, levels, zones of interest. Then waiting: one or two trades a day by the plan, or none. Evening — logging trades in the journal and reviewing them.

Most of the work is waiting and turning down trades that do not fit the rules.

Private trader vs bank trader

A private trader uses their own money through a broker or an exchange. A trader at a bank or fund uses the institution's money under strict risk limits — that requires a relevant degree and experience.

The skills that actually matter

Not maths and not an economics degree. Three things matter more: reading a chart (market structure, levels, liquidity), calculating risk (how much I lose if I am wrong), and following your own rules when emotions suggest the opposite. The first two take months to learn. The third is the hardest, and it is where most people break.

Myths about traders

In films a trader is a person in a suit with six monitors shouting into a phone. In real life a retail trader usually works from a laptop or phone, spends most of the time waiting and makes few trades. Another myth is that traders "know where price will go". Nobody does. A good trader simply finds situations where the possible profit is larger than the possible loss and strictly limits risk.

How to become a trader, step by step

Start with the basics: candles, trend, levels. Then market structure and liquidity. Then practice on a virtual account — at least 50–100 trades logged in a journal. Only after that, if results are stable, a small real account. You can go through this whole path in the Extremum app: 119 lessons with exercises on real charts, a simulator and a trading journal.