Wall Street Made $46 Billion in Six Months. Record Bonuses Could Be Next

Wall Street firms made $45.9 billion before paying taxes in the first six months of 2026, up 51.3% from $30.4 billion a year earlier. The New York State Comptroller shared the estimate on Oct. 6 and expects more than $90 billion for the full year. Office of the State Comptroller That pace would beat the old yearly record by a wide margin.

Profits at a record pace

The old yearly record was $65.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. A year above $90 billion would be nearly 40% higher. The Comptroller also said securities jobs were at a record high in 2026. Profits and headcount grew at the same time.

Bonuses and tax revenue

The Comptroller expects 2026 bonuses to hit an all-time high. That lines up with Bloomberg's Oct. 6 reporting about record payouts as profit passes $90 billion.

The total bonus pool, the combined bonus money for the industry, rose 34% to a record $47.5 billion in 2024, according to the Comptroller's 2025 report. Office of the State Comptroller The 2024 bonuses were expected to bring in $600 million more for New York State taxes and $275 million more for New York City than in 2023, according to Reuters.

Trading led the way

On Nov. 5, 2025, Reuters reported that a consulting firm expected bonuses to be the highest in four years. Workers who buy and sell stocks for clients were expected to get the biggest raises, 15% to 25%.

In January 2026, Goldman Sachs posted a larger-than-expected profit on record income from stock trading and said M&A deals, where companies buy or combine with each other, would stay strong in 2026, according to Reuters.

The bigger picture here is why busy trading turns into big profits and what it means for regular people. Think of these firms like stores that earn fees when clients trade a lot and when companies do deals. Stock trading, not advice on deals, drove pay plans going into this year. When trading is busy, profits jump fast because pay is set as a share of income while basic costs stay flat. That is why hiring and a 51.3% profit jump could happen together. Tax money from Wall Street also jumps fast, but it can fall fast if trading slows to normal.

In my view, current numbers do support record bonuses. The open question for the rest of the year is whether early client activity was borrowed from later months or a lasting pickup in risk taking.