Was wondering what one would expect to be paid on the traffic desk at a supermajor oil firm and at a physical trading house such as Vitol, Glencore, Trafi on any product desk.
Also, I know it varies quite a bit but what would a junior trader earn in salary and bonus at either the supermajors or physical houses. If anyone has an idea how bonuses are calculated that would be great.
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In your other posts you say you are a university student looking to break into the industry - FWIW you will not break in to the industry as a junior trader, it will take a number of years work to get close to a trading role.
In Europe (loosely adjusted for cost of living, and all in GBP), expect to earn anywhere from 30-55k basic in your first year after graduation. Bonuses at most places are uncapped, however range from 0-50%, at a stretch maybe 75%, from the small sample size of results from friends. Salary advances at a steady past but will top out, at which point variable pay does the job.
Almost all bonus schemes are completely discretionary when you start out, you're not about to get a % of anything, so they are calculated basis how well your company has done, your desk has done, you have done and most importantly how well liked you are.
My conversations with recruiters in Singapore/Asia have pointed to the fact that the move is much more feasible once you have 3+ years of experience. They do take fresh grads of course but primarily from that region.
To trade energy at Glencore you would need to complete the 3 year programme (staring on c.50k GBP, and then you may get a shot at trading if the role opens up. Say you get the trading role you then need to earn your own book - that might take a few years (you'll be paid well during that no doubt, but not $1m without managing your own risk..) once you finally get your own risk to manage, your bonus becomes more closely linked to your PNL.
However don't expect a big bonus if your book makes money but the rest of your team haemorrhages cash. Again in my experience all bonuses are completely discretionary. The only ppl I know with a % of PNL are desk heads, even then that is very hush hush and hard to actually confirm.
For Ags:
ADM & Cargill hire grads in the UK, Cargill also in Netherlands. You work in a smaller satellite office, which is the first step in moving to their centralised trading offices.
LDC hire in Geneva, you need a Masters (standard for Europe) and a second language helps (not sure if a hard requirement.
Glencore hire adhoc in the UK and Netherlands.
Pay is lower at the outset no doubt, but you are usually in a low COL area. Pay can increase substantially (although will always lag oil and metals). Edit: Work life balance, not quality of life.. is anecdotally far better.
Cant comment on the early stages but if you make trader (junior, then mid level) you will be able to earn substantially more than any comparable finance role (that is oil or metals related), Those guys can make +$1MM while having a few years of work experience under their belt. I have not seen anybody in my domain (hedge fund) with that amount of work experience make close to those guys albeit some outliers do. As said they all start out in traffic / logistics first and you are by no chance guaranteed to become a trader anytime soon (I have seen some guys do it in like 2-3 years).
Also they travel a serious amount of time (coming from a guy who is travelling on average every other week) and will frequent production (e.g. LatAm, Africa etc.) and customers (Korea, Japan etc.) so dont expect to settle down and expect to visit some interesting destinations on a regular basis.
To answer one of the questions above, its fairly difficult to move from one commodity to another. Relationships are super important in order to get your volumes while making serious cash and the understanding of a particular market is key. As I mentioned long-term earnings prospects are pretty good (e.g. in the millions) and if you are working at a private firm and move up the ranks they can be really substantial (albeit don't believe that you can replicate the payout some of the Glencore senior guys got through the IPO).
Lastly, if you live in a low tax place (e.g. Switzerland or Singapore) you can have a pretty incredible lifestyle