How much do electronic trading jobs really pay?
Electronic trading firms, HFTs and market makers are some of the most lucrative places to work in finance today. The top firms are paying more than $2m per head for talented employees to power their high-tech trading systems. But where (and in what roles) can you earn the most?
What are salaries like in electronic trading?
Salaries in the space are impressive but not ridiculous. We broke down average pay for research, engineering and trading staff at various top firms using salaries filed on the H1B visa salary database since the start of 2024; the data showed that even the most elite firms didn't pay above $300k on average.
Jane Street and Citadel Securities paid average salaries of $266k and $244k respectively. In both firms, roles for research and trading staff were higher than those working in engineering.
What are bonuses like in electronic trading?
When bonuses are added, total pay is much greater. Average total compensation globally for Jane Street's ~3500 employees was $2.7m in 2025. Jane Street has a sizeable support team working in areas like graduate recruitment and accounting; those employees likely earn far less than that figure, which would suggest that front office traders are earning even more. Citadel Securities, meanwhile, paid ~$2.1m to its employees that year.
Other firms have generally been able to keep their pay under wraps but, through the UK's Companies House, we can see how much firms spend on pay in London and how many people they employ (giving us average pay per head). Our full breakdown is visible here; most firms have not reported their compensation for last year, but in 2024 most of the top firms paid between £450k and £850k. Quadrature, a London-based trading firm, paid a massive £2.8m ($3.8m). Jane Street paid £808k ($1.1m) on average in 2024; global average pay that year was $1.4m.
The way bonuses are paid at these firms varies in both their allocation and distribution. Jane Street is thought to pay bonuses based on the performance of the firm rather than of individuals, and gives staff limited visibility of their individual PnL. Citadel Securities is thought to pay more in line with individual performance. Optiver offers a profit share tied to individual performance, in which staff earn 'marbles' that correlate to a small percentage of Optiver's total profits that year.
Jane Street pays bonuses annually, but some firms pay them at multiple points across the year. IMC Trading says it pays bonuses semi-annually, whereas firms like Hudson River Trading and Radix Trading are known to pay bonuses quarterly.
The nature of these bonuses may be changing. These firms are usually 'prop trading firms' meaning that they trade using their own money and have historically been able to pay bonuses in all cash. At Jane Street, however, there are signs that the firm might be shifting to "long term incentive structures," where pay could be calculated using unspecified "complex formulas."
How much do interns earn in electronic trading?
Read more: Summer interns in electronic trading will be making $5k per week in 2025
Electronic trading firms and market makers are almost unequivocally the highest paying companies for interns. Only some of the biggest hedge funds can compete. At the top end, quant interns and AI researchers can earn more than $6k per week, not including sign-on bonuses.
Those sign-ons can also be massive. Hudson River Trading, which accepts 0.1% of applicants, pays Python engineering interns in New York a $25k signing bonus on top of a salary worth $5.8k per week. Optiver disclosed a total compensation of $80k to $90k for PhD quant interns.
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