Physical Commodities Trading vs Quant Trading/Market Making
Deciding between these two for my 2026 internship. Quant Trading/Market Making obviously has a higher starting salary, but the skillset seems hyper-specific and not transferable. On the other hand, these physical commodities trading roles seem to have larger payscale later down the road, and I would also be getting transferable experience and potentially even acting as an engineer in some capacity in certain seats like a Mixing/Blending trading seat. Any thoughts from those in each industry or anyone who was also considering these paths would be greatly appreciated.
To clarify, I am not dead set on New York, and I am totally ok with being in Houston.
One more detail, I am a sophomore at a target school right now
These are two different skill sets. Quant Market Making is at the cutting edge of technology and research whereas Physical Trading you’re going to rely on actual relationships between producers and consumers with very redimentary quantitative aspects (Time Series Analysis of SND and Linear Optimisation of Refineries) and a lot of paper work ( chartering document compliance etc) . Most physical players still rely on excel to trade and the tech stack is very basic.
In terms of career longevity,can only speak of commodities but physical trading is usually a job for life. It’s a highly specialised skill and you rely on the network you make to get ahead and to understand the markets. You can pivot to pure paper if you want to join a HF.
depends on the firm lol
jane street vs dare is a diff story to tmg vs glencore
Good point. As a hypothetical, how about DRW vs BP?
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