Precious Metals Traders in High Demand as Talent War Heats Up

Cailian Press, October 27th, by editor Bian Chun. As interest in gold surges, trading firms, hedge funds, and banks are aggressively hiring professional gold traders, triggering a talent war that has driven up compensation in this traditionally niche market.

According to market reports, major commodity traders Trafigura Group and Gunvor Group have both hired teams of precious metals traders this year, while their competitors IXM and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. have also been actively recruiting precious metals traders.

Headhunters and industry executives state that many hedge funds, banks, and industrial enterprises such as refineries are also attempting to enter the precious metals market or expand their teams.

Although gold is a highly prominent market, with weekly trading volumes reaching hundreds of billions of dollars at major trading hubs, this market has traditionally been dominated by a few banks such as JPMorgan, Hsbc Holdings, and UBS Group, with lean teams of traders. As gold prices soared this year, new market participants seeking to enter the field found the pool of experienced traders available for recruitment to be extremely limited.

“Precious metals traders are currently experiencing their moment in the spotlight,” said Alex Kerr, head of commodities at Aurex Group. “It’s not just banks anymore. Hedge funds and trading firms are also looking for precious metals traders or portfolio managers.”

In addition to soaring prices, this year’s precious metals market has seen a series of profit-making opportunities — from large-scale arbitrage trades early in the year that attracted tens of billions of dollars’ worth of metal inflows into the United States, to the silver shortage that swept through the London market this month.

According to financial analytics firm Crisil Coalition Greenwich, in the first quarter of 2025, twelve major banks collectively earned $500 million from precious metals trading, the second-highest figure in a decade. This is approximately double the average quarterly earnings over the past ten years.

However, for many years, precious metals have occupied a relatively overlooked corner in the trading floors of many banks, leading to a lack of talent pool among traders and salespeople who not only understand the macroeconomic factors influencing precious metals prices but also the practical operations of storage and transportation.

“The talent pool in the precious metals sector is extremely small,” said Nicholas Snoek of HC Group, a commodities-focused headhunting firm. “Given the large number of retirements in recent years and graduates’ preference for tech industry positions, the supply gap for physical precious metals traders continues to widen.”

Precious metals traders, who previously had to choose their employers from a few select banks, are now being aggressively recruited by physical trading companies and hedge funds — these institutions are even willing to offer higher compensation. According to Kerr of Aurex, bonuses for gold traders at physical trading firms can now reach two to three times what they earned while working at banks.

Physical trading companies like Trafigura and IXM typically trade some gold and silver alongside their copper, lead, and zinc concentrate operations. However, the move to hire specialized traders marks an expansion in their activities in this area — earlier this year, Trafigura hired three precious metals traders.

Gunvor Group, traditionally focused on energy, is now expanding into metals. A spokesperson for the company stated: “We are developing a complete value chain from gold and silver concentrates to refined gold/silver bars.” The spokesperson also mentioned that the group has recently recruited several traders from companies such as Macquarie Group and Anglo American.

In addition to demand from trading companies, hedge funds, refiners, brokers, and banks are also hiring precious metals traders, leading to significant personnel movement across all levels of the industry, from senior to junior positions.

“This is the largest personnel movement I have seen in my career,” said Bruce Ikemizu, a veteran in the industry and chairman of the Japan Gold and Silver Markets Association. “There aren’t many truly experienced talents; we rarely see young people entering the industry.”

At present, the precious metals market is experiencing a historic boom, with prices of metals led by gold and silver repeatedly hitting new highs. Last week, after continuously climbing, the international gold price saw a cooling-off and reversed its trend, marking the first weekly decline in ten weeks, but still showing an increase of approximately 55% year-to-date.