Does anyone happen to have much insight into what life is like as a quantitative trader at a top HFT firm?
Currently exploring opportunities and was wondering if anyone has experience/knowledge on which firms are best regarded within the space (Citadel Securities/IMC/HRT/Tower Research/Jump etc.), what career progression is like and what comp is typical a few years in?
Thanks.
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Matamatica, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:
If those topics were completely useless, don't blame me, blame my programmers...
They pay very well. Straight out school you will prob get around 250k all-in (depending on performance and market conditions). However, I have heard of outliers getting closer to 350-400k. In the beginning, there is some leeway because you are still learning, but you are expected to perform fairly quickly. This is more for prop trading but not sure about comp in places like HRT as opposed to places like IMC/Optiver/Jane Street. For developers, I know the IMC offers around a 200k compensation package.
The interviews are very difficult, but on the other hand they're quite meritocratic and they interview from a fairly broad range of schools. However most new grads tend to come from a few schools (H/P/S/M) and have similar profiles (high GPA maths/stats/other STEM). Networking and connections don't really matter at all.
There isn't really much "career progression" in the same sense as in say IB, where you get associate after 2-3 years etc. Your responsibilities on your desk do increase though and comp definitely increases quite a lot.
There was an AMA on r/algotrading a few months back that had some good info as well.
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