Currently IC7+ Eng at meta London. Discussing an offer from Tower Research in London, new trading team, as a Quant Dev. Seems they are offering very similar base pay, but no bonus guarantee at all, even for the first year. They are saying it's a new trading desk, you will get access to PnL, but once team start making money (~1.5-2 years). How big this bonus can be? 50k? 300k? 500k? 1mm? Don't want to work for two years and receive 50k with words "sorry, we are not profitable yet, lets wait for another year". What if Portfolio Manager is not successful and his strategies just simply won't work? Anyone from the trading team here? #towerresearchcapital #trading #london #meta #swe
Garbage offer. My project isn’t profitable yet too, but I get my bonus in full. I’d stay away from such promises. Nobody knows what will happen in 2-3 years.
Do you know your bonus in advance? I was told for old trading teams you can have some guarantees, but not for the new efforts
My bonus was guaranteed
I personally wouldn’t join a “new” trading desk without guaranteed bonus. I’m not sure what access to PnL you’d have as a QD, either. Is it systematic?
Systematic, yes. mid-freq trading strategies. Very small team - Portfolio manager and 2-3 quant devs. Everything is unknown - but PM said that even sky won't be a limit once we start trading
If they are so confident, shall not they borrow against future returns to guarantee bonus until they go live? I personally know of a few people who did fall into this great promise of the future, only to be disappointed later (no pnl, shut shops, etc.) Generally may work out but a lot depends on how good the PM and how competitive their strategies are (track record, prior experience etc) Gamble if you are young / financially secure, but just be prepared.
What’s your TC?
Peanuts, did not accumulate enough fb stocks
How the fuck is it peanuts at L7+ even with the stock drop. Can’t imagine it being lower than 400k which in no way is peanuts
What’s the offered base?
Less than 200k GBP
At tower it entirely depends on your desk. So without knowing the track record of the strategies you are simply taking a blind risk. You can take a more risk averse route and apply to the core team which is not desk dependent but less upside. From the datapoints I've heard you'll likely make more guaranteed comp at E7 (but I don't work there so can't confirm for sure)
Seems a bit weird for quant dev, seems like the new team isn’t that important.
You'll either end up a millionaire in 2 years or you'll be looking for a job. OP, ask them for percentages. If the desk makes a profit, how much of that will you get? And it must not depend on how your manager is feeling that day. I knew of a guy that was working for a hedge fund. New boss came in, everyone got a zero bonus. Big fat zero. Since most of your comp at a hedge fund comes from the bonus, this means a huge salary drop. So while they can't tell you the £££ value, they absolutely can tell you the percentage, and once again, don't depend on the kindness of your manager. I'd probably be looking for something like X% of the profit, where X can vary a little based on your individual performance, but never lower than, I don't know, X*.75. As a hypothetical example.
Avoid this trap, happens fairly often in the industry and at Tower. Promise big deliver shit.
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“What if Portfolio Manager is not successful and his strategies just simply won't work?” That’s not uncommon and not unheard of; and yes, no $$$$$ in that case.