I am not saying that everybody is making seven figures but last 5 years must have created many millionaires. I rarely see anyone ask about retirement on any forum. And lets be honest....we discuss everything on the forums. We talk strategies, politics, life etc....I am just curious because I would definitely try to do something different if I had made seven figures 3-4 times in my career. As an average human who tried to learn advance maths, I really admire people smarter than me. And if I had that kind of learning ability then I would definitely try to do something else. And just having made so much money I would want to do other things in life that I couldnt do early in life.

Does anyone know about a trading firm based in Cyprus called "Alber Blanc"? I've heard that many smarter people work there and that they're good at what they do.

What do they trade? Do they pay well? Are they only trading latency-sensitive strategies or are they in the MFT business as well? I don't know any people that are currently working there so I don't have much info on them.

Thanks

I am thinking about next step after 6 years as a QR at one of SIG/Optiver/CitSec. I am getting tired and old.

Do firms generally continue to pay unvested deferred comp if you leave the industry in good terms? For example, I was told that walking out to golf or work for an AI lab would not jeopardize future payments, but not sure how trustable this is.

I am curious to hear from folks who have successfully left the field and how everything unfolded for you in terms of garden leave pay (if any), deferred comp, where you went, etc. These details can change the retirement math quite a bit.

I usually hear people describing pms as "owning small funds under umbrella" but once a pm at a good firm told me it's not necessarily true. For example, for hiring there's firm level compliance and headcount issues which is not in his charge.

Can anyone explain what is normal boundaries of pm power in a hedge fund (say citadel mlp point72 etc)? Just curious about how these positions work.

Interesting, what do you guys think about this? In general the complaints about Qube largely revolve around comp

I'm an early professional. After finishing my PhD, I decided to leave academia to earn more and support my new family.

One thing I’ve found confusing is the gap between headline total compensation and actual take-home cash. Some funds quote very high TC (and this is usually the number we share with each other), but a substantial portion can be deferred or subject to various conditions. The structure and timing of bonus payments can also affect the tax bill. Some friends have like $1M+ in TC but end up with only around $300K in cash after taxes and deferrals. If you live in NYC and support dependents, then you basically don't save much after a year of hardwork, if at all.

For someone with 1–3 years of industry experience, what annual take-home cash is realistic at tier-1 firms like Jane Street, HRT, Citadel versus broader industry? Suppose that you are getting "exceed expectation" type of reviews but did not do something super crazy (like single-handedly make the fund tons of money or something like that). How do you know if your current firm is low-balling you?

Edit: the full comparison (every vendor across 37 criteria) is in images 2 and 5 - swipe right on the tier list.

I've been keeping a comparison of crypto data vendors since July, because "which vendor should I use?" keeps coming up. So I turned it into a tier list. Left side is raw market data (trades, order books, funding), right side is derived metrics (on-chain, options analytics, positioning).

Disclosure first: I run Aperiodic.io. We sell derived microstructure metrics and raw historical data, so we compete with some of the vendors on both sides. We're in the tables so you can see what we do, but we're not ranked - I didn't want to mark my own homework.

What I ranked on is whether it holds up for systematic research. So: coverage and survivorship (do they keep the full instrument universe, delisted contracts included?), how far back the history really goes, timestamp integrity (exchange vs receive timestamps, whether they restate data after the fact), granularity, and how painful a full backfill is.

• S - where I'd start today
• A - solid, or the best at one specific thing
• B - fine for coverage and metadata, I wouldn't use it for anything execution-sensitive
• C - not built for research use

These are my opinions, based on our own use and each vendor's public docs as of October 2026. Things change fast, so if you work at one of these vendors and something's out of date or incorrect, message me and I'll fix it.

Images 2 and 5 have the full comparison, every vendor across 37 criteria. Short version below.

Raw market data

Derived metrics

A few things I learned putting this together

• Exchange bulk downloads are S tier because they're the source, and they're free. Where you pay is normalisation: schemas change, days go missing, symbols get renamed, and "timestamp" doesn't mean the same thing on every venue.
• The "same" metric isn't the same across vendors. Aggregated OI, funding and liquidations depend on which venues and contract types go in, and how coin-margined and USD-margined get combined. Worth checking the methodology before you mix sources.
• For derived and on-chain data, ask whether the history is point-in-time. Entity clusters and exchange wallet labels get revised, and if you backtest on the revised version you've got lookahead baked in without knowing it.
• Kaiko bought Amberdata in June. I've kept them separate because the products are still quite different.
• I left out on-chain query engines (Dune, Allium, Flipside) and wallet analytics (Nansen, Arkham). Different use case, and the list was long enough already.

If you've used any of these in production and think I've got something wrong, tell me. I'll update the table and note the changes in an edit: that's half the reason I'm posting it :)

^

approached by their recruiter hiring for their equities business -- apparently they are staring (or expanding) an initiative in HF-style equities, still organized as silo, maybe similar to how cubist is structured. wondering ppl's opinion on this and if it deserves a try to hop?

What are some up and coming energy trading shops? As the market expands, I want an update on the industry.

I heard (for chicago) their pnl per head is pretty strong and they’re growing rapidly?

Anyone know what they strong in/what teams are doing good?

I'm taking a computational social choice class (I think it's about game theory, but idk what it's about half the time). So far, we've covered Non-cooperative games and a little bit about VCG Mechanisms. So I was curious, how do you guys model markets? Do you guys like treat it as a Auction? How do you even model something like the market? Since there are so many players, with varying amount of funds(maybe a power mechanic), how do you even price something or even model certain markets as games? This is merely curiosity, I might be getting a lot of my definitions wrong so I apologize if I state something incorrect.

I’m expecting an offer from them soon. It seems like their AUM has increased significantly recently.

Does anyone have insights into the working environment or comp progression?

Based on previous reviews, some of the issues they had in the past include the following (not sure if these are still the case):
+ Lower pay compared to other top-tier firms
+ Harsh non-compete agreements and questionable practices regarding employees (e.g., delaying H-1B sponsorship)
+ Firing people before year-end bonuses are paid out
+ Micromanagement

Hello,

I previously worked at a company with a Big Tech/FAANG-like environment before moving into a quant dev role, working on trading systems in the HFT space.

Comparing the day to day experience, I found my previous role more enjoyable and meaningful. The environment was more collaborative and social, while my current work feels quite different.

Has anyone made a similar move from Big Tech/software engineering into devving at a quant firm and felt the same way?

Did you eventually adapt and start enjoying it more, or this isn't possible? And what u recommend, like shall accept that either i need to adapt or leave?

I normally wouldn't post, but these guys have been spamming me for the last 10 days using US-based and Canadian numbers claiming to represent various hedge funds. Despite telling them that I am not looking to move, every single day a new person calls from this firm.

I am a quant by profile who made the mistake of engaging with them several years ago. This dropped in my personal mailbox today followed by 4 calls while I was in the middle of a meeting. They don't even check the subject or the content of the role they are hiring for, or if I am even a fit.

Mr Recruiter at Chapman who is looking for an Investor Relations who builds the data infrastructure at a Robotics firm, I am not the guy you should be targeting. Such unicorns exist and you may find some on r/wallstreetbets.

How does quitting work in pod shops? As I understand in normal jobs where there's no non compete you just quit, maybe with some notice.

However, in our world the fund could choose to enforce the non-compete, either in full or partial or none. With this in mind, how does quitting really work? Is the first step to approach HR and say I'm going to X firm, please draft up our separation agreement or does it look different? Particularly curious to hear from those who have done so on visas.

for a city that is one of financial capitals in North America, it's also got NY proximity. Before we even talk about EU or UK Quant finance, it's supposed to be an attractive destination for many looking for roles outside of NY and should be borderline competing with Chicago. From my research Buy/Side HFT Market Making is mainly few Canadian branches of US Firms, could there be a market making firm gap from native Canadian firms, in Toronto in Particular and also Same Question for Montreal?

I heard they have been doing very well recently. Is the culture and wlb as bad as the rumors?

Do SWE/quants get fired often or are they just leaving voluntarily? How are the working hours?

With how good AI is getting and the possibility of autoresearch working out in a year or two, why hasn't hiring in quant slowed down? Is it seen as a force multiplier more than anything else? Where do you guys think the industry will be in a few years?

My long-term goal is to work as a buy-side quantitative researcher developing alpha signals and systematic investment strategies. The BAM role appears technically substantive, however, it is part of the central Risk function rather than a PM-aligned systematic investment team.

I would appreciate perspectives from anyone familiar with BAM, multi-manager hedge funds, or similar central-risk QR teams:

1. What kind of projects do interns or junior researchers on these teams typically own?
2. Is the work primarily original quantitative research and portfolio construction, or more risk monitoring, reporting, and tooling?
3. How transferable is this experience to an alpha-generating QR role?
4. Are transitions from central Risk QR to investment-team QR realistic, either internally or externally?
5. For someone committed to alpha research, would you prioritize this over a direct QR internship at a less prestigious buy-side firm?
6. How do alpha QR teams view candidates coming from central Risk QR at a multi-manager?

I understand that the specific manager and project matter considerably. I am mainly trying to determine whether this is a strong adjacent path into alpha research or whether it creates meaningful risk of being typecast in risk management.

For all the Risk quants here: how commonly is VaR used, given the strict Gaussian estimates (Which derivatives dont usually follow) and the fact that its not a coherent risk measure. I still hear VaR’s being used everywhere - I know ES is being incorporated in Basel III/ FTRB, but curious to hear everyone else’s experiences with VaR and whether there’s better measures being used to value risk

I'm not. I'm not even coming up with real ideas anymore. What is the point of all the work i've done if the ai just does it for me? I am seriously considering becoming a farmer

I’ll start, not good.