Mid-level base
€85,000 to €120,000
Recruiter survey, up to €160,000 for senior hires
Graduate trader, Da Vinci
€100,000
Base, plus a €20,000 sign-on bonus
Quant researcher, 1 to 3 years
EstimateAbout €185,000 to €435,000
Base plus bonus, before tax
30% ruling
Up to 30% tax-free
For up to five years, for hires from abroad; 27% from 2027 for rulings started in 2024 or later
Amsterdam has a long history in market making. IMC was founded there in 1989 on the floor of the Amsterdam options exchange, Flow Traders, founded in 2004, has its headquarters there, and Da Vinci Derivatives started there in 2015. Maven Securities and Mako have Amsterdam offices, and All Options trades from the city.
Recruiters put the base for a mid-level quant in Amsterdam at €85,000 to €120,000. Da Vinci states its pay in its ads, while IMC and Flow Traders leave it out. The base is only part of the package: at Flow Traders, variable pay was 49.1% of average pay in 2025.
How much do quants earn in Amsterdam?
Recruiters put base pay for mid-level quant analytics, research and trading roles in Amsterdam at €85,000 to €120,000. Senior hires earn up to €160,000 in base pay.
The base rises slowly. Da Vinci pays the same €100,000 base to a graduate trader and to an experienced quant, so what grows with the years is the bonus.
Reported by employeesReported
Traders at all Amsterdam firms report an average total pay of about €175,000, with the middle half between €90,000 and €272,500 (283 reports, 2026).
What does total pay look like in Amsterdam?
With the bonus, our estimate for a quant researcher or trader in Amsterdam with 1 to 3 years of experience is €185,000 to €435,000 a year before tax. In the first year the estimate is €150,000 to €300,000, and with 4 to 6 years it is €270,000 to €655,000. The low end is an ordinary year; the high end is a strong year at a top firm.
The chart below shows every stage. Move the slider to set the base.
At a €100k base, quant researchers in Amsterdam make an estimated €150k to €300k in the first year and €355k to €1.1m after 7 years. The base barely moves with the years; the bonus does the growing, and in a strong year at the best-paying firms it takes total pay to about 11 times the base.
Typical range of base in recruiter guides and job ads for the city: €85k to €120k.
- Researcher, Year 1: base about €100k, estimated total pay €150k to €300k.
- Researcher, 1 to 3 years: base about €100k, estimated total pay €185k to €435k.
- Researcher, 4 to 6 years: base about €100k, estimated total pay €270k to €655k.
- Researcher, 7 years or more: base about €100k, estimated total pay €355k to €1.1m.
Firms’ own ads back this up. Da Vinci’s ad for an experienced quant here states a base of €100,000 and expects total pay of US$500,000 or more, in the ad’s own US dollars.
A year, before tax, not counting a sign-on bonus. The low end of each column is an ordinary year at an ordinary firm; the top is a strong year at the best-paying firms.
How this estimate is worked out
The base is the one on the slider, within the range recruiter guides and firms’ job ads give for the city. Too few traders and researchers in the city report their pay, so Tradermath sets the bonus from what the market pays at each stage. The bonus stays the same share when you move the slider, so a higher base brings a larger bonus.
How much do Amsterdam trading firms pay graduates?
Da Vinci Derivatives is the clearest benchmark, because it states pay in its ads. A graduate trader starts on a €100,000 base with a €20,000 sign-on bonus, up from €80,000 in its 2024 ad. A graduate trading risk analyst starts on €75,000 to €85,000. IMC and Flow Traders advertise graduate roles in Amsterdam with no figure.
For experienced hires, Da Vinci goes further: its experienced quant ad states a €100,000 base and says total pay is expected to be US$500,000 or more a year, in the ad’s own US dollars. That is the firm’s own figure, including bonus.
What does Flow Traders pay?
As a listed company, Flow Traders publishes an audited figure. In 2025 its average pay per full-time employee, including salary, social security and variable pay, was €224,200 (2024: €239,800), and variable pay made up 49.1% of it. This covers every office and role, so it is not Amsterdam graduate pay.
The bonus pool for 2025 was €74.4 million, 32.5% of the operating result. Flow Traders guarantees no variable pay, with one exception: it can guarantee it to a new hire, for the first year only, and only when its capital base is strong.
Do the same firms pay more in the US?
No firm publishes a graduate base for both Amsterdam and a US office, so there is no like-for-like figure. IMC advertises $250,000 for a graduate quantitative trader in Chicago, and Flow Traders $175,000 in New York. Neither states an Amsterdam figure.
How is pay taxed in the Netherlands?
Dutch income tax in 2026 is 35.75% up to €38,883, 37.56% up to €78,426 and 49.50% above that. These rates include national insurance, so each euro a quant earns above €78,426 is taxed at 49.50%.
Without the 30% ruling, a year of wage tax on €150,000 of pay is about €64,200, which leaves about €85,800.
What is the 30% ruling?
The 30% ruling is a Dutch tax rule for people hired from abroad. For up to five years, the employer can pay up to 30% of the salary as a tax-free allowance, so income tax falls on as little as 70% of pay. On a €100,000 package, up to €30,000 can be paid tax-free.
The salary has to be high enough. In 2026 the taxable salary must be above €48,013, or above €36,497 for an employee under 30 with a Dutch master’s degree or an equivalent foreign one. The allowance also has a ceiling of €78,600 a year, which a salary of €262,000 reaches. Pay above that is taxed in full.
The rate is falling. From 1 January 2027 the allowance is 27% for rulings that started in 2024 or later. A ruling that started before 2024 keeps 30% for its five years.
How do you get an offer at an Amsterdam trading firm?
Amsterdam’s market makers hire for speed and judgement with numbers. Most applications start with a timed online test of mental arithmetic, sequences and probability, and the interviews that follow add estimation and market-making games where you price and size a trade on the spot.
Those tests decide who reaches the offer, and at these firms the offer is where a large first-year package starts. Practising each firm’s test format under the real time limit is the cheapest way to raise your chances.