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Approximately, how much do traders make? My guess would be a junior trader would start at total package of $100k and go up to $1M and up. I assume the comps are comparable betweeen fixed income and equity traders.

An intersting take on the subject of the thread .. I was under the impression that we were dicussing how a trader would make profit for his employer ...and by doing so enrich himself. You seem less concerned about that and more about what a trader gets paid. The answer to your question is that [ay consist of base + bonus. the former varies depending on the institution but is usuallly round the £100k mark. The latter really varies. Ideally you want to get 8-10% of what you make.

QuoteThe answer to your question is that [ay consist of base + bonus. the former varies depending on the institution but is usuallly round the £100k mark. The latter really varies. Ideally you want to get 8-10% of what you make. According to your numbers it sounds like it is very comparable to a quant's comp. Nonetheless, traders take much more risk than quants. Would you agree?

pray tell me how a quant makes 10% of what he earns for the firm when he has no p+l ?

Sorry for not being clear. What I meant was, a desk quant gets a bonus based on how that desk's traders do collectively. A trader's bonus depends only on his own book. So the later is riskier than the former. A trader's bonus has a much higher up-shot, but he or she doesn't enjoy the risk diversification that a quant enjoys. Do you agree?

Not really - I think in almost all cases bonses are dependent upon the profitability of 1. the bnk, 2. the department and finally 3. the trader. In a bad year, even profitable traders get shafted

Some banks have benchmarks where say each trader headcount is expected to contirubute at least Eur1.5-2mio of trading P&L. And daveangel is right in saying that the average bonus would roughly be around 10pct of what the trader makes... of course it also depends on a lot of other things but reckon this benchmark is quite generalise.

QuoteOriginally posted by: IcecloudSome banks have benchmarks where say each trader headcount is expected to contirubute at least Eur1.5-2mio of trading P&L. Are the P&L expectations the same for fixed income and equity traders? If not, your ballpark figure corresponds to which one?