Senior level pay in S&T
Curious what senior VPs and MDs make in trading in a given year. Joining a flow equity derivatives desk at a BB, and I understand that pay can largely be dependent on book performance in a year.
However, in $ terms, what can pay look like for desk traders managing their own book or a group in a given below average, average, and above average year? Are MD's actually pulling in 1MM+? And if so, what kind of range of bonus is considered reasonable for a successful trader? If anyone has first-hand experience, I'd love some color on what all-in comp might actually look like and how volatile it can be depending on team performance.
Thanks!
my old boss (head of Rates Trading) made ~ 1mm base + bonus. I hear he got paid 3mm last year.
at a BB? and I'm assuming that is tail end of his career?
Tail end definitely, and we’re talking TOP trader with fuckin piles of gold for capital. Like to make that much, you’re a household name on the street. I’m on a credit desk and head trader on my desk does $750k-1MM on a good year. But what sucks is on the sell-side you get paid out a lot of your bonus in stock which blows.
I'm sure it's a big range; probably emolument.com has plenty of data for equities traders. You can definitely get zero bonus and fired, and probably the MD head of desk at a top 3-5 shop like MS makes a buck or three.
Flow equity derivs is a pretty terrible business for a bank, though. Every year all of the interns and analysts flock to it because they think knowing Black-Scholes and a small quantity of calculus makes them smart. Turns out it's all done by computers on razor thin margins and only the very top couple of shops make any money at it. The real money in this product is at HFT/stat arb shops. Non-flow can do well, too, but it's basically ECM banking.
the non-flow eq derivs business is pretty interesting...For example,
What if i asked you to sell me a 10yr OTM MSFT put? How would you figure out a vol for it? MSFT listed options are only liquid out to ~2-3 years.. where you gonna get fwd vol from? How frequently would you update your delta hedge? Would you hedge rho? How much spread do you wanna charge? Can you hedge skew, and if so, is it worthwhile? Can you create an arb vs. the credit/cds/convertibles?
True flow derivs is a tough way to make $...single-name especially
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