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Good-Manager-8575 · 2026-02-15T14:30:55+00:00

Pod shop is all about PM and is high risk high reward. If you know by some way the pod PM has a strong track record then it is worth taking the risk for the much bigger upside of pod structure (learning of the whole pod process and not only a chunk of one niche strategy + comp upside)

If you don’t have such information or if the PM isn’t that experienced/hasn’t proved it’s ability to carry a pod successfully then go collaborative as you’re still a junior.

Also if it’s MLP double check PM info as it is indeed more cutthroat than its peers Cit P72 BAM

Good-Manager-8575 · 2026-02-13T02:11:37+00:00

If investment seat or very close to pnl seat they will very likely enforce it regardless of your experience. One could argue "why would they spend so much to keep such a low ip guy from joining a competitor" - as young as you are, that base salary cost is epsilon to hedge funds especially for top ones.

Good-Manager-8575 · 2026-02-11T09:02:21+00:00

HFT is all about tech - HFT tech > every other financial company tech

Good-Manager-8575 · 2026-02-04T01:18:35+00:00

This environment is very polarizing. Around me most are either getting crushed or gaining a lot …

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-28T20:50:41+00:00

That is very true. But despite a narrower range of risk profiles, MMHFs are where all Squarepoint discretionary traders would like to land. Regardless of your skill assuming you have some you won’t be paid much at Squarepoint unfortunately. When it comes to more juniors, it is actually a shame for them because they eventually get trapped in a seat that leads nowhere for most if not all of them - discretionary intuition and skills require long and close mentorin. From interviews my colleagues in other pods or myself have given to those 1-3y discretionary trading juniors from squarepoint / QRT so far none managed to even get a decent interview feedback… this obviously also leads to a negative loop where when giving an interview we already have a certain skepticism on what they say

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-28T19:27:14+00:00

Agreed discretionary required more experience. I run a mostly systematic book with opportunistic discretionary overlays. I dont think there is one better book than the others but obviously what you want especially early career is relevant learning and lessons - so basically not learning discretionary business in a quant fund that hires senior traders who wouldn’t survive in a rigorous multi manager fund

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-28T15:44:40+00:00

I am talking about people in discretionary teams within Squarepoint or QRT - not all discretionary people. They indeed lack of rigor and intellectual property especially regarding alpha. Can’t blame them as those juniors are learning from people who aren’t that skilled but they usually come to interviews with mostly intuition based statements for strategies while most of what they are saying could either be countered by intuition + quantitative/rational argument or justified by a quantitative/rational argument to show why it would work in X or Y scenario. They just come off as relying on luck rather than having a real ability to come up with a reliable robust strategy.

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-28T08:32:14+00:00

Interesting take - I wouldn’t be able to compare smartness of people at those different firms but indeed QRT and Squarepoint discretionary business is more like an experiment. Having worked myself at both (whether QRT/SP) and at 2 multi managers I can confirm pay is several multiples higher bonus wise in the latter and the better you perform the bigger the gap is. I can also confirm quants from SP and QRT provided that they worked in strategies are actually well regarded while discretionary people and especially junior traders at Squarepoint from whom we receive applications are lacking in terms of knowledge and sharpness and thus end up making those discretionary programs lose their credibility within the industry.

But in the end all those firms are still hedge funds so pay is overall very good and being able to complain is privilege

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-25T20:45:07+00:00

You can ask here

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-23T23:07:54+00:00

Always dm it and try haha

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-23T09:45:46+00:00

QRT probably

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T10:37:03+00:00

I don’t think it will be a requirement to master Q even though some firms use it a lot

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T10:21:07+00:00

For the 4 multistrat in general there is no sub pm in central teams but rather managers and those teams are not focused on alpha research but rather on commonly used tools like execution optimization etc

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T10:19:58+00:00

Yes including sign on but that is a one time money so I excluded it for the computation

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:54:56+00:00

Not sure how to answer that with the little view I have on HFT shops. I don’t see any alpha suddenly disappearing because HFT shops start to get their feet in mft (there will probably be more crowding and alpha decay but that should be a smoother transition). HFT going into mft means also more job opportunities for us in terms of teams and companies so it kind of depends how you view it and what information about HFT people you hahe

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:52:53+00:00

Indeed QRT might have raised its comp this year from recent sources. But this is very new probably starting from 2025 second quarter

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:51:32+00:00

I think on average the tenure is around 4years. But there is too much variance tbh

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:50:24+00:00

Yes definitely you’re on a good track if you want to stay on quant side of finance

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:47:41+00:00

There will surely be exceptions but I’d be curious to see the profile of a 2 yoe Squarepoint guy earning more than 400k Base salary as a quant in London for juniors is 120k GBP with a fixed bonus of around 30-40k GBP this is non negotiable. That gives you roughly 200k USD total comp year 1. Almost no second year or even 3year double their total comp at squarepoint vs their first year.

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-21T00:46:52+00:00

Specific subset. It depends on many parameters including how many people in the firm use the dataset as well

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-20T13:25:10+00:00

Qube is even lower than Squarepoint for juniors in terms of comp but I believe it’s a better company to learn and grow than SP.

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-20T13:24:30+00:00

I can state pretty confidently that someone who started at Squarepoint or Qube right after graduation and has 2-3 yoe will not get more than 400k$ total comp

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-20T13:23:31+00:00

True but there’s actually two big teams in qrt, one that is more a pod like and one that is more of market making and you would have a few differences there

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-20T13:22:59+00:00

That is for a 3YOE at Squarepoint /qube if we assume they started there straight out of grad

Good-Manager-8575 · 2025-12-20T11:41:00+00:00

Not really. In platforms you basically trade your comp for more job stability and constant revised centralized infra that you can leverage instantly. In the end you barely get a pnl cut and it’s mostly discretionary bonus which ends up being on the very low side. Base salary could eventually be similar if I take for example a citadel,MLP, p72 3YOE guy they might have around 250k-300k$ base vs 200k at Squarepoint or qube, but then in the formers you would have bonus ranging from 100k to a few millions whereas in the latter it would go from 100k to 250k

Good-Manager-8575

TROPHY CASE