Pay per employee, 2025
€224,200
Salary, social security and variable pay
Variable share of pay
49.1%
2025 (2024: 56.8%)
Graduate quant trader base
$175,000
New York, plus discretionary variable pay
Amsterdam quant trader, first year
EstimateAbout €150,000 to €300,000
Base plus bonus at every firm, for comparison
Flow Traders is a global liquidity provider and market maker with deep roots in exchange-traded products. It trades around the clock from hubs in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific, and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
Because it is a listed company, Flow Traders publishes something most trading firms never do: an audited figure for what it pays per employee, and how much of that is bonus. In 2025 that was €224,200 per employee, and about half of it was variable pay.
How much does Flow Traders pay?
Flow Traders paid €224,200 per full-time employee on average in 2025, including salary, social security and variable pay. That was down from €239,800 in 2024. The figure excludes the executive directors.
Pay per employee in the Flow Traders remuneration report
| Year | Pay per employee | Variable share | Bonus pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | €224,200 | 49.1% | €74.4m |
| 2024 | €239,800 | 56.8% | €87m |
That average covers every office and every role, so it is not graduate pay. What it shows is the weight of the bonus: about half of all pay at Flow Traders in 2025, and more than half in 2024. In the five-year table of the report, average pay per employee fell by 59% in one year and rose by 58% in another.
How does the Flow Traders bonus work?
Bonuses come from one firm-wide pool, set from the firm’s results. For 2025 the pool was €74.4 million, 32.5% of the operating result, down from €87 million in 2024. Pay therefore moves with the year the firm has.
The pool is shared out by the results of the firm and of each business unit, each person’s performance and their contribution over the long term. An award is not tied directly to the profit one trader makes. Objectives are set at the start of the year, and performance is reviewed twice during it.
Part of an award is paid in cash when it is decided. The rest is paid over later years, in shares, and a larger award has a larger deferred part. A later loss can reduce it.
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.
How much does Flow Traders pay graduates?
A graduate quantitative trader in New York starts on a $175,000 base, and so does a PhD graduate quantitative researcher, each with annual discretionary variable pay. Flow Traders states these figures because New York City law requires it. An experienced quantitative researcher is advertised at $200,000 to $225,000.
That graduate base sits below the $300,000 that Jane Street, Hudson River Trading and SIG advertise, and below IMC’s $250,000. The chart shows every firm with a live US graduate ad.
Flow Traders states $175,000. 9 firms advertise a higher graduate base, up to $300k. This is base pay only: the bonus comes on top, and within a few years it grows to match or pass the base.
- Hudson River Trading$300,000
- Jane Street$300,000
- Jump Tradingintern rate$300,000
- SIG$300,000
- DRW$250,000 to $300,000
- Citadel$235,000 to $300,000
- Citadel Securities$235,000 to $300,000
- IMC$250,000
- Optiver$200,000
- Two Sigma$165,000 to $190,000
- Flow Traders$175,000
The base salary each firm states in its US graduate job ads, September 2026. The bonus comes on top.
What does Flow Traders pay in Amsterdam?
Flow Traders does not state pay in its Amsterdam ads. Across the Amsterdam market, our estimate for a first-year quant trader is €150,000 to €300,000 with the bonus.
Two published figures frame it. Recruiters put the base for a mid-level quant in Amsterdam at €85,000 to €120,000, and Da Vinci states a €100,000 base and a €20,000 sign-on for a graduate trader in the city.
How much do Flow Traders interns earn?
A quantitative trading intern in New York is paid at a yearly base of $150,000, prorated for the weeks of the Summer 2027 programme. That is about $2,880 a week.
How do you get a Flow Traders offer?
By passing the numerical tests first. The process opens with a timed online mental maths test and a sequence test, sat together. Most candidates who fall short do so here. Both reward weeks of daily practice more than a late effort.
The interviews that follow test how well you know the firm’s business: exchange-traded funds. Expect questions on how an ETF is priced and hedged in the first interview, market problems and quick calculations without a calculator in the technical round, and a full ETF case study at the end, often with a presentation.
The interview guide walks through each stage. The practice page has both numerical tests in Flow Traders’ format, and the ETF trainer covers the case study.