MercorDomain experts
Retail Trader
$400/task
About this role, in Mercor's words
We are building a dataset of real retail trading behavior: complete brokerage trade histories, paired with the trader's own explanation of how they trade and why they made their biggest decisions. The data is used to study and model how individual traders make decisions.
What you'll do
- Upload your trade history. Export your complete transaction history from your U.S. brokerage account using the broker's standard export, and upload it to our platform. It must cover at least 24 months and include every trade, with none removed. Remove your name, account numbers, address and other personal details before uploading.
- Describe your trading style. Write a short summary (about 100 to 250 words) of your strategy, typical holding period, the instruments you trade and the platforms you use.
- Explain your 5 biggest trades. Pick at least 5 of your most significant or influential trades, such as large gains, large losses or high-conviction calls, with stocks preferred. For each, explain your reasoning at entry or exit and what information drove the decision. Keep any reflection on how it turned out separate from your original reasoning. Each explanation must name a specific trade in your history, with the symbol, date, side and quantity matching that trade.
- The writing takes up to about 1.5 hours.
Quoted from selected sections of Mercor's posting. The full posting may state other conditions. Read the full posting
A closer look
More context, when you need it.
Full job descriptionThe original posting, in Mercor's words
Posted by Mercor, reproduced here so you can judge the role before clicking. Original posting ↗
About the work
We are building a dataset of real retail trading behavior: complete brokerage trade histories, paired with the trader's own explanation of how they trade and why they made their biggest decisions. The data is used to study and model how individual traders make decisions.
This is a one-time task, paid a flat $400 on completion.
What you will do
• Upload your trade history. Export your complete transaction history from your U.S. brokerage account using the broker's standard export, and upload it to our platform. It must cover at least 24 months and include every trade, with none removed. Remove your name, account numbers, address and other personal details before uploading.
• Describe your trading style. Write a short summary (about 100 to 250 words) of your strategy, typical holding period, the instruments you trade and the platforms you use.
• Explain your 5 biggest trades. Pick at least 5 of your most significant or influential trades, such as large gains, large losses or high-conviction calls, with stocks preferred. For each, explain your reasoning at entry or exit and what information drove the decision. Keep any reflection on how it turned out separate from your original reasoning. Each explanation must name a specific trade in your history, with the symbol, date, side and quantity matching that trade.
The writing takes up to about 1.5 hours.
Pay
• $400, paid once you have uploaded your full history and fully annotated at least 5 trades.
• Partial submissions are not paid: the upload and all 5 annotations are required.
Who we are looking for
• Location: United States only.
• Trading experience: at least 2 years of active trading on your own account, and at least 1,000 trades over that period (about 2 per trading day).
• Instruments: stocks; options count too.
• Broker: your account is with a U.S. retail broker, such as Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity, E*TRADE, Webull or Interactive Brokers.
• Background: any. No minimum education and any field of study, from current college students to graduate-degree holders. Non-finance professionals, finance professionals and full-time traders all qualify. Current or former professional traders can take part using their own personal account only.
• Age: 18 or older.
• Willing to share your complete brokerage trade history, with no trades removed.
Not a fit
• Fewer than 2 years of history, or fewer than 1,000 trades
• Trading only through an account you don't own, such as a managed, employer or prop-firm account
• Trading mostly crypto or futures
Data license agreement
Taking part requires signing Mercor's Expert Content License Agreement, which covers how your trading history and annotations are licensed and used. You sign it as part of applying.
Working with MercorPay, getting started and work, from Mercor's own pages
What the platform publishes in general. These are not extra terms confirmed for this particular role.
- Getting paid
- Hourly work is paid every Wednesday for the previous week, through Stripe Connect or Wise, whichever Mercor assigns to your region. Stripe holds the first payout for 7 days. talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/payments, talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/contracts
- Before your first paid task
- An AI interview of about 20 minutes, reused for other roles that need it, then any assessments the role asks for. Before logging hours: ID verification through Persona, a tax form, the contract documents, the Insightful time tracker, and a background check the onboarding guide says usually takes one to two weeks. talent.docs.mercor.com/support/ai-interview, talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/apply, talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/contracts, talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/id-verification, talent.docs.mercor.com/working/project-onboarding
- How much work
- The current interview FAQ gives no reply-time estimate. Mercor says it notifies you when your application moves to the next stage and that you can keep applying. When a project ends you are not moved to a new one automatically. talent.docs.mercor.com/support/ai-interview, talent.docs.mercor.com/support/project
- Contract
- Independent contractor with Mercor.io Corporation of San Francisco, which deducts no taxes. talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/taxes-work-authorization, talent.docs.mercor.com/support/legal
Read on the pages linked above on 23 Sep 2026. Platforms change these terms, so check the linked page before you rely on one.
Alex's experience on MercorA personal account, not a promise about your project
Alexruns this site and has worked on Mercor himself. Written 31 Aug 2026.
- Every interview I took used an AI interviewer. They always checked my microphone and camera and asked me to share my screen, and some included a timed exercise of around 25 minutes.
- Many later applications needed no new interview from me. With the required assessments complete and no other outstanding steps, applying could be close to one click.
- The application I checked did not ask for a rate. My offer matched my minimum in Work Preferences. That does not establish that Mercor always caps higher offers at your preference.
- Onboarding and setup came to about 4 hours, with more security and tool setup. Of the three platforms I worked on, it was the most complicated for me. That is an estimate from my projects, not a platform average.
- Mercor required the Insightful tracker on my project. I observed app and website usage monitoring, and I am unsure which screenshot settings applied, so check the configuration.
- I was paid for hours logged, once every 14 days, and I have not experienced late or incorrect payments. That was my arrangement. Mercor's current documentation describes weekly payout cycles, so check your own offer.
One person's applications, not a promise about yours.
What happens after you apply, first-handHow does the pay compare?Across Domain experts roles, not this role alone
From our own daily reads of every open listing on the platforms we follow, not from Mercor's posting. How we count.
Pay across the field: Domain experts
Across 752 roles in this field with a stated hourly rate in US dollars, on 21 platforms, the middle half pays $63 to $125 an hour at the top of the range, and the median is $100.
| Platform | Roles | Top of range, per hour |
|---|---|---|
| micro1 | 155 | $12 to $400 · median $110 |
| Alignerr | 148 | $24 to $200 · median $80 |
| AfterQuery | 93 | $45 to $175 · median $100 |
| Mercor (this platform) | 90 | $55 to $450 · median $120 |
| Handshake AI | 81 | $30 to $300 · median $80 |
Sources and listing historyWhere this information comes from
This listing's history
- First seen here on 24 Oct 2026, and still on Mercor's list when we last read it on 25 Oct 2026.
- The listed pay has not changed since then.
- Posted by Mercor
- First seen by AIPayList
- Last seen live
- Listing ID
- list_AAABoWsjEohggV1F8gdLEoVO
Pay as the source states it: “400 USD HOUR”.
Platforms sometimes change a rate after posting. Every listing here is re-read at least once a day and corrected when its source moves, so a difference you see on the platform is usually a change made since the last read. How freshness works.
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