Hi all,

I am trying to gather data about quant salaries (most significantly in risk) in London, since I will be discussing promotion/pay-rise with my manager soon and would like to be a bit better informed about what a fair salary is for my level and experience.

It is a bit hard to find reliable sources of information, and so far I have only found this article quoting Selby Jennings as the source (the article does not specify if this is front office or middle office, or if candidates are assumed to have PhD or MSc level) and this salary guide from Morgan McKinley. Figures are somewhat different between the two, the first one having relatively higher numbers. Looking at job boards does not help since salaries are usually not part of job descriptions.

I case it helps, I have been working about one and a half years in quantitative research at a "top 10 bank" in the City of London, have 2.5 years experience in software engineering at a different investment bank and don't really know how much people with similar level of experience are worth.

I would like to hear professionals and recruiters take on the matter. Thanks!

I was hoping to get some answers but looks like I probably won't. As I can read from other threads on this forum it looks like it's best to contact headhunters directly by sending them my CV, although this doesn't seem to be the most efficient approach tbh.

I was actually only looking for someone to confirm me if the two sources that I had provided were actually reliable and could be used as guidelines.

70-80 sounds like a good range, but I would take it a bit more lightly, try to get some non  obvious high valued exotic option clauses in your contract.

Is the salary determined by the dress or the other way around? This is from the Selby Jennings link (and apparently called 'archetypal quant.jpg'). Says a lot about Selby Jennings, but that's not a surprise.

That was pasted there by eFinancialCareers presumably.

I have however found these new sources below. Unfortunately not in the 70-80 bracket for someone like me with 4 years experience:
Michael Page: 40-65
Robert Walters: 50-70
Goodman Masson: 50-70
Prmia: 60-76

Does somebody disagree with these figures?

I think you're doing good research. My numbers were a guess based on a small sample of things I've seen here and there, but maybe not for comparable roles? I would stick with your numbers if the offer you below 60 then you can show these numbers? I think what most important in a negotiation is: do they want to keep you and are you being reasonable? both parties need to feel good about it, and it's not about absolute numbers..

You are a quant, so good with numbers. Can you estimate an answer to the following question: how much does the firm or your division or your desk make in revenue or in profit from your work? Once you answer that you can multiply by a factor to get a salary/bonus.

If that is not a number you can calculate, from a optimum pay perspective, you may need to find another job.

I bet you're a quant too? That's a too simplistic model.

* suppose you an actally calcuate how much money you make your company: they won't be willing to give the NPV of all that to you
* people wrongly attribute profits to themselves all the time, especially people with big egos. The company will of course keep making profit without you, and you won't be able to make that profit sitting at home. 
* politics/social/ranking: your negotiation might affect other negotiations, that will be part of the negotiation, that's a cost component. So are the social boundaries you establish with your negotiation behaviour. Not many people make more money than their boss.  Bosses just sits there all day supporting you guy without making any direct money themselves, right? How can that be?
* companies have alternatives, they can hire someone else (or not), it's a market model.
* etc etc etc

how much does the firm or your division or your desk make in revenue or in profit from your work? 

That in my case would be particularly hard to answer, given that I work in quantitative risk management and hence my work does not generate any directly observable profit.