How openly do traders discuss their comp?
I'm going into S&T fulltime and have been interviewing for a variety of desks in Fixed Income. I think I'm well positioned to land on a solid to good desk but like almost all FO people, am trying to map out compensation down the road.
Obviously during interviews I'm not going to be asking for comp numbers from the VP who I'm speaking with, but assuming you hit the desk and have a reasonable relationship with the VP / Associate, how openly are bonuses discussed among the group?
Just wondering because having those candid conversations can offer a kind of litmus test for how the bank views the deks, whether the bank wants to nurture the desk and thus there's a future to be had, etc.
I have never encountered comp discussion with peers in my career.
you can ask "what % of your P&L do you generally expect to get paid....and how has that % progressed over the years?"
if a trader is as a bank, and doing well, one might wonder why they don't leave to goto a hedge fund to get paid 3-4x for the exact same work.
some traders at the bank require the banks resourses and client flow to enable their trading...and so would not succeed at a hedge fund...some others only stay because it is comfortable...and some others are in process of building their trading track record so they can indeed leave to goto a hedge fund...and some others just aren't good enough for a hedge fund to hire.
I would say close to never
Pretty much only when someone leaves, you will hear rumors start to float around about what they are getting at the new place or about how they had to jump ship since they were getting screwed before. One of the places I worked we had a director just up and quit with nothing else lined up, rumors started to fly around about how he was getting paid less than other people at his level on the same team and that he was so frustrated that he quit. I personally never spoke to the guy about it, but it seems possible he was a good guy but did not exactly work very hard. You will hear people mostly complain about how their P&L was up and they made the same bonus or a lower percentage than the year before or something like that but never real numbers.
The best way to figure out which desk is getting paid is to figure out what the person running the floor used to sell or trade and go there, people generally take care of their own. If a desk is growing headcount that can also be a good sign that the business is growing but can also mean that it will be harder to advance as quickly, sometimes coming into a desk where a bunch of people just left can be a good thing as you can take on more responsibility and can advance quicker. All that being said if you are trying to "optimize" this career for max income its impossible, its just too random and there is so much volatility in both markets and the whims of the senior management at a given bank. Find a desk where you like the people, think the product is interesting and where the workflow fits your personality.
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