The elite graduates earning "insane" salaries in electronic trading are not who you think
Some elite graduates in finance come from the Grandes Ecoles. Others study in Russia. The most prestigious of all, however, may study at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). These universities are seen as a cheap source of talent by banks and tech firms, with their average graduate salaries being as little as $19k. However, a select few of their top students earn more than 20 times this in electronic trading.
An ex-high-frequency trader, speaking anonymously, tells us that there are "five firms recruiting very aggressively from IITs... there's a war for talent." An IIT graduate, also speaking off-record, said that "proprietary trading in particular seems to have grown significantly in popularity" among graduates in the last decade.
Which firms are hiring? Tower Research Capital's founder Mark Gorton was hiring IIT graduates as early as 2007 for his other venture, LimeWire. Optiver opened a Mumbai office last year, while fellow Amsterdam-based trading firm IMC plans to grow its Indian contingent to 150 by the end of this year. Jane Street hires IIT graduates, although most of its traders in the Indian markets operate out of Hong Kong and Singapore.
Bloomberg reported last July that over 1,000 math and engineering prodigies work in quant finance under one roof: The Two Horizon Centre in Gurugram. It's home to Tower Research, local firms like Quadeye, and Citadel Securities.
Like the Grandes Ecoles, IITs have a vigorous entrance exam, with the highest performers being sent to the top schools. The IIT graduate said that this exam "selects strongly for performance under pressure, speed, focus and competitiveness." Top performers are generally sent to the oldest schools: Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Madras and Kharagpur. The graduate we spoke said these schools "historically placed the most candidates in quant finance... firms usually recruit based on individual performance, but those schools offer the strongest talent pool." On LinkedIn, major trading firms and hedge funds currently employ over 680 graduates from those five schools alone. Senior figures include Delhi graduate Umesh Subramanian, the CTO of hedge fund Citadel, who stepped down earlier this year. Tower Research's global head of FX trading, Ebenezer Raj, is an IIT Kharagpur graduate.
The graduate said that there isn't much specialized education for quant finance at IITs, however. AI and machine learning resources are similar to what's on offer globally.
An employment report from IIT Bombay said that, in the 2023/24 academic year, 113 out of 1475 graduates went into finance across 33 companies; the average salary overall was ~$19.7k, but the high-frequency trader said "salaries are insane now" for quants. "You can earn five times more than Google would pay for students from the same school," he said. One IIT graduate at Jane Street was offered compensation of $508k in Hong Kong back in 2024, for example.
Even interns are paid well; the trader tells us IIT graduates have been offered as much as $20k per month to intern in electronic trading (not including sign-on bonuses). This is the going rate at IMC Trading in the US, according to verified offers on Levels.fyi.
India has been the hottest topic in electronic trading since regulator SEBI accused Jane Street of manipulating the equities market with one of its options strategies. Despite a broad crackdown and increases in regulation, IIT hiring is ongoing; Jane Street reportedly hired graduates from IIT Bombay, Delhi and Madras to join in 2026.
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