Let me share my experience as a trader as well. Currently working in one of the major trading houses purely as a physical trader. I have been doing this for around 2 years since graduate and I deal in one of the refined oil products. To provide you a background of myself, I was an undergraduate of NTU ( non-biz major ). My GPA was just average, - 3.6/5.0.

I didn't know how but I was lured into the idea of joining a BB S&T position. when I was an undergraduate. I took part in many trading competitions and I even did an internship as a voice broker, networking with the market making big boys over official company events. However after graduation, I was obviously unable to secure an interview, let alone a job, due to the competitiveness of the S&T program as well as my sub-par GPA.

Therefore I made the switch to try to become a physical trader and the rest is history. I got to say I was VERY lucky to land a job. They hired me purely on my outgoing personality plus a little bit of internship experience as a broker and 'trader'.

On hindsight, I'd actually prefer my job now compared to the notion as a paper trader. I get to travel to places I had never been before ( M.E, S.A) and I get to interact with humans rather than computer screens.

Monthly gross salary wise, I would say it is rather decent. Slightly above the market I must say. However my bonus (exc AWS) for 2014 FY was 7.0 months.