Now Reading: HFT firms pay interns up to Rs 6 lakh a month in talent war
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HFT firms pay interns up to Rs 6 lakh a month in talent war
High-frequency trading firms in India are paying interns Rs 3, 6 lakh a month, sharply up from a year ago, as they compete for engineering talent from top colleges. Gurgaon-based Quadeye now…
High-frequency trading firms in India are paying interns Rs 3, 6 lakh a month, sharply up from a year ago, as they compete for engineering talent from top colleges. Gurgaon-based Quadeye now offers interns about Rs 3 lakh monthly, or Rs 6 lakh for a two-month internship, quadruple the 2023 rate. Graviton Research Capital LLP has raised its two-month internship pay to about Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1.6 lakh previously.
Global players have followed suit: Amsterdam-based IMC Trading BV doubled its two-month package to about Rs 5 lakh, and Optiver Holding BV offers around Rs 6 lakh, according to sources. The hiring push comes as India's derivatives market faces tighter regulations and declining activity, average daily turnover in NSE futures and options fell to a 17-month low in July. A regulator study found proprietary trading firms saw gross profit drop 3% in the year ended March. Firms are expanding into other asset classes and overseas markets, increasing demand for quantitative engineers who build trading models and high-speed execution systems.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The sums at stake reflect an arms race for talent that began in the mid-2010s, when algo trading volumes on Indian exchanges first took off. Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's 2018 framework for algorithmic trading, proprietary eyes must register trades, but the code behind them is closely guarded. As SEBI tightens equity derivatives norms to curb speculative retail activity, raising contract sizes and margin requirements in a phased manner, HFT firms face thinner domestic margins and must expand into commodities, currencies and overseas markets to maintain returns. The same scarcity of quant talent has pushed base salaries for full-time engineers at top firms past Rs 1 crore annually, with vice-presidents at global desks reportedly earning multiples of that. The next development to watch is how SEBI's upcoming consultation paper on system-driven trading disclosure, expected in the coming months, may further alter the competitive calculus for these firms.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
