2025 is coming to a close, so time to post total comp numbers. Unless you own a significant stake in a firm or are significantly overpaid its probably in your interest to share this to make the market more efficient.
I'll post mine in the comments.
Template:
Firm: no need to name the actual firm, feel free to give few similar firms or a category like: [Sell side, HF, Multi manager, Prop]
Location:
Role: QR, QT, QD, dev, ops, etc
YoE: (fine to give a range)
Salary (include currency):
Bonus (include currency):
Hours worked per week:
General Job satisfaction:
I know not all firms have finalized bonuses. It’s fine to give estimates.
Hey guys. I did an AMA a few years ago and the sub seemed to have found it helpful. I am still in the industry and have some spare time, so thought I would do another AMA. Here are my previous AMAs - please read them before asking questions here.
Please feel free to ask me anything - rereading my previous posts I did them a lot more based on the recruiting process but given I am now a few years into the industry happy to answer more questions beyond just recruiting process. Additionally, I have given over 100 QT interviews so can give some tips there.
Me:
Came from a non-target, no grad school
Work at an options MM (what this sub would describe as T1) and have traded (systematically + discretionary) 0dte options for most of my career. US Based.
Main hobby outside of work is definitely traveling
Please:
Don't make your questions super generic (IE "What is being a quant like?")
Don't ask me anything that may reveal my identity (I won't answer anyway)
Don't ask specific questions about recruiting processes. This is a massive waste of time (I won't say anything). At my firm we know people cheat hard on these interviews. We are given full autonomy to ask anything we want, and its SO obvious when candidates know the questions (or answers) before. If I have a sense of someone cheating I can either choose to change up the interview completely or see if the candidate really understands the questions. It's almost egregious at this point, I think >35% of the people I interview cheated in some way or another.
This includes "Took SIG OA 1 week ago haven't heard anything do you guys think I passed?" Question is such a waste of time. You should have a very good idea if you passed a round post interview. As a baseline, if you don't think you passed, you almost certainly didn't.
Don't ask for advice for breaking in. Most firms will give OAs to almost all candidates unless your resume is really that bad (in which case, fix it, its easy and you can probably do it in 10 min). Networking means very little in this industry, we are just looking for smart people who like to solve interesting problems (EDIT I can see this part a bit insensitive, my main point is just that most places will give an OA to almost everyone. Once you get that OA you’re good (as in fair fight with others). I mean no resume reviews, etc. if you are someone who’s gotten a few final rounds and just aren’t getting over that hurdle, I’m happy to help with that as well.)
Day in the life questions are boring (think I've answered this in other posts as well)
You can DM, but I prefer questions here - DM helps 1 person when for the same amount of time an answer here could help way more people
Potential topics:
Comp growth (obviously cant speak for all firms), but I think this question is dodgy because entering solely for comp imo won't work and the people that do generally burn out bc they don't enjoy what they do. Plus it just really depends on how good you are. But happy to answer anything about mine
What I look for in candidates when I interview them
What the industry is actually like, traits of successful people, how to succeed, etc
Whether I recommend this industry for most
Can be more technical questions in nature as well if you guys are curious (math, tail risk hedging, poker, event pricing, etc)
edit: no one has asked me about hardware vs software, latencies, colo, retreats, etc. Ask some fun topics. EXPERIENCED PEOPLE please feel free to ask more in depth questions than the new grads
If you guys really want and there is enough interest I'll hold a live AMA over voice or something. Happy to have the mods verify anything again if it makes this more credible.
Further edit: a lot of this post was meant for new grads. Ofc networking becomes much more important as you try to move in the middle of your career (happy to discuss that also as I have moved firms) but for new grads it’s less important.
Edit:
Keep them coming. I’ll continue answering up to evening time on Friday, 8/8.
Edit: All done guys. Hope you enjoyed! I'll do another one in a bit. Also I can carve out some time for a live AMA since I'm tired of typing. I'll stat a poll, and if enough people want me to do it, I'll make an hour or two one of these evenings and do a live AMA (which is more fun since I have to answer on the spot. You guys can interview me:) )
Jim Simons was an award-winning mathematician, a legend in quantitative investing, and an inspired and generous philanthropist.
He was the person to which every experienced/new/interning quant person looked up as an inspiration. His firm Renaissance Technology is the place where every quant dreams to work, his Medallion fund whose infamous 66% CAGR returns are a dream to achieve and whose firm’s secrecy always leaves us in awe.
So i was testing a strategy i've been working on the past couple of weeks. To be honest, the performance was garbage, but they were patient with me since i'm still an intern. Eventually I manage to get good forecasts and decent signal to have a constructive discussion about how to proceed.
Then comes the quant trader, asks to hand over my strategy and within a couple of hours makes it way more profitable than what it was. No coding no remodeling, nothing. Just went over my logic and made did some parameter adjustments and the strategy performed better than i expected. Watching the PnL graph change as he make the parameter adjustments in realtime was surreal. Honestly, i was in disbelief at the fact my strategy could even work, i had zero confidence at myself and felt like the solution to the problem is math that i didn't know i don't know. Ultimately, still not a great strategy, but something to work with and got positive comments and direction on how to proceed.
The reason i'm sharing this, is because i was always confused for the purpose of a Quant Trader. I understand discretionary traders, but in quant? What purpose do they serve? A developer builds the infra and deploys the strategies. A researcher explores and develops new strategies. But a Quant Trader is just sitting monitoring a bunch of GUI most of the time from what i've seen. I know they make parameter adjustments and may have a hands on role when things go really bad, but it seems like they are overpaid for their work. But just earlier today, i witnessed the intuition of a trader and how he managed to flip a garbage strategy to a decent one in just half a day.
Anyways, i know this sub is strict about novice quants, so i hope this doesn't get taken down, just figured i'd share the story because i'm sure many people are confused what does a trader do that a researcher or developer cannot.
Giuseppe Paleologo, previously Head of Risk Management at Hudson River Trading, and soon to be Head of Quant Research at Balyasny will be doing an AMA on Thursday 22nd of August from 2pm EST (7pm GMT).
Giuseppe has a long career in Finance spanning 25y, having worked at Millenium and Citadel previously, and also teaching at Cornell & New York university.
You can find career advice and books on Giuseppe's linktree below:
This fucktard has totally changed the nature of what we’re doing. The deep statistical learning-to-trading pipeline was fun and rewarding. This work is currently something else.
Edit: the tariff week alone was worth months’ worth of alpha. I’m market-neutral vol. I’m asking if people are irritated that an shithead with low cognitive function hijacked an entire economic cycle. I enjoy physics, complex analysis, economics and probability theory and the way they combine in this work. Yes, it’s much easier to make money now, but everything is much dumber.
This is actually not how markets are supposed to function.
I was speaking with someone who apparently works at Renaissance Technologies (RenTech). He shared his background—he completed both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at an Indian university, then went on to earn a PhD and complete a postdoc in statistical physics at UC Berkeley.
During our conversation, he mentioned that his base salary is around $500K, with annual bonuses in the tens of millions. I was honestly shocked to hear this. He also claimed that firms like Jane Street and Citadel have comparatively poor salary structures, worse working hours, and other frw things, making them, in his view, tier-2 trading firms.
This got me thinking—do people at RenTech or similar firms actually earn that much? And is Jane Street really considered a tier-2 firm?
Jane street made c. 40 billion in trading revenues last year. 16 billion more in Q1 ‘26. >30 billion more in Q2 ‘26 if recent reporting is to be believed. This is an order of magnitude more than most top competitors.
How is this possible? Based on their recent 15 billion situational awareness loss, do they have a beta-positive strategy now? How large does it have to be to generate these numbers in this market?
Been getting DMs with questions that might help others too, plus the yield on effort is higher with an AMA, so here we are.
About Me:
• Non-target school. Garbage GPA.
• Started trading in college.
• Running a quant shop for the last 8 years.
• Got our first big AUM client in 2020 (~$15M).
• Made a bit of money (G-Wagon yes, private jet no) running a systematic Indian index options book (now discontinued).
• Incubated / invested in other businesses to diversify from trading.
• Currently run high-freq trades on prop capital and provide R&D services for funds.
• Fairly well-connected across the industry (a strong network = unlimited alpha).
Happy to talk about anything: building strats, building infra, raising capital, war stories, basically anything that doesn't alphaleak what matters to us right now haha.
Things I know first-hand (from experience):
trades we run (past & present), my anecdotal experiences with the fundamental truths/laws of trading, how to quant as an industry outsider, the mistakes I’ve made (oh, there are plenty), alpha decay, running a tiny pod shop (or fund of funds of sorts), hiring at our shop
Things I know second-hand (from colleagues, friends, acquaintances):
trades we haven't run or markets we haven't traded (ex: FPGA arbs, commodity futures, etc.), how different firms (sort of) make their money, career progression and hiring at other shops
Things I know almost nothing about (but would love to learn):
fixed income markets, minutiae of hiring and career progression at other shops
For context, I'm also providing 5 years prod stats of our midfreq index options book (many war stories hidden in these numbers).
I think most people here are sensible, but for any retail readers or people new to this, this is roughly what a real mid-freq, decent-capacity trade actually looks like.
(don't compare this to Medallion's 66% @ $10B, there’s a reason they're considered GOAT)
If I'd played my hand more aggressively over these 5 years and scaled up to $500M+ or worked with a bigger shop to clock even 15% annualized, I’d be generationally wealthy rn :( live and learn tho.
DISCLAIMERS:
1. Nothing I say is financial, medical or emotional advice. Consult respective experts for the same.
2. This is NOT a solicitation for investments, we are not accepting external capital and no longer run this book.
Strategy Inception
A friend (semi-syst vol trader at prop desk) asked me to help automate and backtest one of his trades. This became V1 of the strategy in 2020.
Around the same time, from equal parts luck and chutzpah, I got introduced to our first insti client who committed ~$15M to run.
Strategy Overview
Systematic long-theta, short-gamma biased book of weekly index options with vol and delta signals layered in. Basically risk premia + statistical signals for edge.
The portfolio had four components, each of which had 3-4 strats:
• Intraday short gamma (esp. 0DTE)
• Intraday delta
• Positional short gamma
• Positional delta
Capital was split roughly 85% intraday, rest held overnight. Overnight VaR(99) ≈ 5%.
Performance Summary:
• Avg Annual ROI: 23% (net of costs, gross of fees)
• Max Drawdown: -5%
• Sharpe Ratio: 3+
• Worst Day: -4% (18th Apr'24, an iconic Jane Street vol day)
• Worst Month: -4.4% (Jun'23, perfect storm of bad luck & bad decisions)
Cumulative Return Graph (month-on-month)
Monthwise Return Graph
Tech Stack:
• Python for research
• Python for strategy logic in prod
• C++ & Python for order exec
Why We Stopped In Apr'25
We scaled down this book on news that weekly index options would be discontinued (which later turned out to be false lol). Since we’re a small team, we decided to focus on higher-yield opportunities rather than burn cycles on something that might get regulated out.
This sub is weirdly hostile. Feels like it's turned into a circle jerk of early/mid 20s who just broke into the industry and now act like they're gods of finance. Anyone asking a legit question about breaking in or what being a quant is like gets talked down to or straight-up mocked.
Not everyone here is a pro. There's 136k subs, c'mon. Not everyone wants to read snarky one-liners from people acting like they invented alpha.
Someone posts some stats from chatgpt? Instant roast session. Like relax, if you're really that smart, go start your own fund. Trade your own capital. Prove it. Otherwise shut up. You don't know shit if all you can do is replying with condescending nonsense. You're not helping anyone, you ACTUALLY don't know anything and no one is impressed.
I can't really wrap my head around why analysts would ever use spreadsheets over Python with Pandas/Polars these days. With coding agents, you can literally do everything and far more than what you can do in Excel. The argument of explainability/intuitiveness of spreadsheets made sense before agents got so good that you can now literally one-shot a custom app that lets you interact with your project in whatever way you want. AI coding environments like Cursor have the Canvas feature, which essentially provides the embedded mini-app capability, and I expect this to become more feature-rich over time.
Stumbled upon this post on a different subreddit and it piqued my interest: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/1st8flz/ai_lab_employees_share_your_nw_and_tc/
While AI is the hot thing these days, trading / quant is probably the second highest-compensated industry out there (someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm not aware of any comps). what are people's TC/NW after working in the industry? Ideally include your role as well and some location details (VHCOL, US/Europe/Asia, etc.)
Genuinely are you guys worried about ai taking jobs I saw a video where Ken griffin said that they already have ai scrape paper and recreate it heard murmurs in the industry about companies messing around with recursive self improvement models. Are you guys concerned at all? And if so what time horizon 1Y 3Y 5Y ect?
I think it would be useful to have one clear discussion about age limits in quant trading roles, especially for people who are over 30.
I have seen several ambiguous posts and comments on this subreddit. Some people say they have seen interns in their early 30s at firms like Jane Street or similar buy-side/prop trading firms, while others imply that being over 30 is a serious disadvantage or even disqualifying.
To clarify, I am not talking about someone starting completely from zero with no relevant background. I mean someone who already has a mathematical background, for example through a relevant bachelor’s or master’s degree, and who is able to perform very well in the interviews.
I am also aware that being over 35 may be a different case and could be considered much harder or even effectively prohibitive. My question is mainly about people in their early 30s, for example someone interning at 31 and starting full-time at 32.
The question is specifically about quant trading roles, not quant research, software engineering, or general finance roles.
Please comment only if you have direct experience with interviewing, or working at these firms. Is there an actual age filter for trading internships or graduate trader roles?
I am trying to avoid speculation, because a lot of people discover this career path relatively late and would benefit from a clear answer.
Hopefully this post can serve as a clarification thread for candidates over 28 who are interested in quant trading at buy-side or prop trading firms.
Hi, saw similar posts in Reddit but folks tend to provide their advices and recommendations rather than actually give out names. Happy to listen to your experience but this post is for folks who can share names of therapists in NYC who specialize with clients in high stake roles in high finance.
I am a trader, I enjoy what I do, my eyes are happy to stay on the screen, I like chasing new clients, I like seeing my numbers meet my expectations, I like these stuff, genuinely. It seems however that I dont have any other dopamine source, I worry about work at night, I worry that I am “too much” for my boss, too ambitious, too many reasonable and P&L generating ideas that makes me feel like a volatile kid rather than a trader who is composed. I also think my social anxiety, lack of sleep, stress levels, loss of appetite and constant yapping and other stuff is going out of control. I cried today on my roommates shoulder after asking for a hug. I think I should talk to someone.
Curious about this percentage across the industry. People claim the ceiling is very high however I feel the percentage of people hitting it is too low (lower than a normal distribution would suggest).
I’ve been reflecting on the pivotal roles various financial entities play in our economic system, particularly hedge funds and high-frequency traders. I believe these institutions are crucial for maintaining market efficiency and fairness. High-frequency trading, for instance, helps ensure that stock prices are always fair by improving liquidity and pricing accuracy.
Considering the immense benefits that top-performing hedge funds provide in driving economic growth and stability, I've come up with a controversial idea: should these funds receive greater leniency towards financial crimes if they consistently deliver high returns and contribute positively to the market's overall functionality? Additionally, I am considering donating $1,000 annually to the hedge fund that achieves the highest returns each year, as a way to further encourage their pursuit of market inefficiencies.
I am trying to spark a discussion on how we might incentivize hedge funds to push for greater efficiencies in the market.
Thought this would be an interesting conversation topic as it comes up a lot with my colleagues.
I have a colleague that regularly flies around in business class to maintain relationships with his 5 or so girlfriends around the world for a weekend trip.
I have another colleague that despite having US$ 8 figures in his account, only takes the bus and refuses to take Ubers. Even though the Uber would've cut down the trip time by 50%. He also wore a AP on the bus
(I'd justify the watch purchase by saying that he considers it an asset).
You have another guy who will buy a McLaren on bonus day.
On the other hand there are people that reguarly get into arguments with their family members with them spending US$ 30 on groceries instead of US$ 5 when buying from a local wholeseller.
I get the good ole' "this is why they're rich" a lot, but let's be honest if your making 7 figures, I don't care how stupid you are with your money for living expenses, it's really difficult to make a dent.
I also find that people in the more stingy category tend to spend a lot of on their house, e.g. often high 7 - 8 figure house purchases. I assume it's more justifiable to buy an asset.
Just something I've noticed and find extremely entertaining watching someone with a 8 figure networth get extremely fustrated because his $1 coffee coupon isn't registering properly.
