I don't agree with the question, especially if we are talking about de facto traders. There is a high level of worry because commission margins and returns per

I don't agree with the question, especially if we are talking about de facto traders. There is a high level of worry because commission margins and returns per unit of risk are the lowest ever. I would say there is a high level of calculated ignorance in the industry. Truth is, most trader jobs have been gone in the last 15 years. First it was the automation of order collection (phone orders being replaced by automatic order routing processes), then automation of the execution process (from human order management to algorithmic trading), then automation of the investment management process (from discretionary processes to quantitative management), and the last frontier will be the automation of the relationship with the client. Problems are different for different trader types. Execution traders execute orders on behalf of clients. Today a lot of clients execute directly using web terminals and APIs. And if you still execute on behalf of others you spend a lot of time fighting against the machines (one solution is to trade out of market, but this too is being automated). Very very hard to come up with new execution algos. For delta hedging traders the role has been reduced to monitoring, unless you have allowance to take risk (which most banks don't since the 2008 crisis). For alpha traders, whose job is to extract money from market, the risk is not in being replaced by the machines, but one of overcrowding, i.e. everyone following the same strategies is reducing returns and increasing risk (skew) across the board. Sales traders whose activity is to sell first, and trade last, still need to manage relationships with customers. But this has been changing gradually, with clients prefering digital interfaces, passive investment programs, and now the rise of automated investment management programs. I started working in the industry circa 1999. The head of trading I was working with told me once machines will never be able to invest like a human. He's still there doing a lot of money, but certain that it will end someday. His strategy: "let's see if I can make it one more year"...