The following is an interview with a hard-charging Chicago-based trader.

Q: Where do traders fall in the totem pole of finance?

A: I’m not sure. In an investment bank, traders often contribute a very large portion to the firm’s revenue, but seldom attain the highest levels of management due to less education and fewer tangible business skills. Traders are generally well respected but seldom understood.

Q: Are all traders gamblers?

A: I would say 80% truly love gambling. I think this comes from the unquenchable desire for risk. Many traders I know gravitate towards more interactive forms of gambling like poker and sports gambling . Poker translates well as there are no fixed rules and you are competing against others. In sports betting, most think they have an inside edge, also common in trading.

Q: How many times a year do you go to Vegas?

A: Usually twice, never more.

Q: Describe the typical trader.

A: Strangely, with the advent of electronic trading in the last several years, the “typical trader” is quickly becoming something of a dinosaur. The profile of a trader is becoming younger, better educated, and generally more diverse. Certain common traits that still abound are things like the need to compete, the talent for problem solving, and a love of risk.

Q: What’s your day like? Do you have time to do personal stuff like normal people?

A: My day consistently begins with recapping all the events and market action since I last sat at my desk. While I am not open for business 24 hours a day, the market is. When I sit down, I am trading or observing market prices and information almost non-stop until I leave. Like “normal people” I try to steal away moments to check my email during market inactivity, but other than that there is little room for personal stuff.

Q: How did you get into trading?

A: During college, I started with a summer position as a statistical analyst, developing trading systems for 30 year Treasury Bonds and S&P 500 Index futures. Originally I planned a career in investment banking, but the appeal of directly working with the markets was too good to pass up.

Q: Why that and not another area of finance?

A: The ability to make autonomous decisions with immediate consequences is something you can really only do if you’re the boss or if you’re trading.

Q: What does it take to make money as a trader? Balls? Smarts? Math?

A: There are many different types of trading, so many different answers. Some of the best traders I know have little to no book smarts. Others equally talented traders have PhDs. Math is useful for statistical modelling but unimportant of reactionary day-trading. One quality may help you for one style of trading, but hinder you in another style. But like I said before, qualities that most successful traders have are: the need to compete, the talent for problem solving, and a love of risk.

Q: What is your goal — i.e. is there a magic number that you want to hit so you can retire?

A: Many traders do have that magic number. Typically I hear five million dollars. I personally do not have one. I’ll be doing this until it is no longer interesting or a different opportunity presents itself that is more appealling.

Q: What does the typical trader spend his dough on?

A: Most traders spend money on real estate, cars, other types of investments. This is not unlike most people, just generally on a grander scale. Then again, I know several millionaires that you would never guess had that much money.

Q: What % of your decisions are based on “feeling”?

A: 10%. Often this is to get an idea of what is going on in the market, which is easier to do by participating rather than observing.

Q: Do you think human traders will become obsolete?

A: Never. Ironically, the more automated trading systems there are out there, the more opportunities human traders have to exploit idosycasies that arise. Not everything is programmable. New things happen in the world all the time.

Q: If traders were an animal, what would they be?

A: I have asked this question in trader interviews in the past, and I’m not sure I have ever received a good answer. So here goes … a trader is most like fish. We all start small, in a very big ocean, and all you do is try and survive. We eat as much as we can, trying to get as big as we can. But at the end of the day, no matter how big or how successful you are, if you let your guard down for an instant, you can find yourself sitting inside a bigger fish.