When in bad times, you were asked to hold on; when in good times, you were paid peanuts.
Pros
A lot of decent people to work with both on the trading and tech side. They do their best with strong motivations.
Cons
1. As is said in the headline, you were asked to take a cut on your bonus in bad times and were told that we were going to be great again. Then you thought it meant proportional bonus to firm's earnings in bad or good times, but no way they would do this to the tech folks when things get better. Yet they claim to be a tech company and indeed it is the tech that makes trades possible during crazy markets with all my due respect to traders. 2. Some managers are aweful - no surprise as from point 1. They would give a bad review citing random projects from the previous review cycle, which happened to be good samples before. They just don't care about you or your need. They care about their own reimbursement/level etc. What's the point of working there being ripped off financially and mentally? 3. Why it is still successful? You don't need to be nice to all your employees to be successful. People like winners. Is it replicable? - Yes. With a few experienced traders and architecture/techs and capital, you are 30% on your way to a trading shop if you have a team working together. That's what I meant about tech in point 1, technology lays the platform, traders stay or come and go so strategies evolve. But what does tech receive ? Cheap talk like being proudly presented as part of a team that builds a successful technology company in all hands.
