I don't understand why we're successful - Trader Optiver Employee Review

2.0
29 Nov 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High mid-career compensation relative to other mid-tier firms in the industry. 25 vacation days each year.

Cons

Political. There's a lot of people in upper management who obviously didn't get there through merit (just look at the number of business majors!) You'll have more success as a sycophant than as a competent trader. Coworkers are unintelligent. Seriously, ask someone here a math question. There's a 10% chance they'll be able to answer and most people here just cheated through the interviews. The company's success is more due to their willingness to take risk and the relatively few players in the space than anything else. Cutthroat environment. Traders here are unhelpful and often play weird games to make themselves look better. Disorganized. Because traders don't do anything that's not in their personal best interest, it's hard for anything collaborative to succeed from the trading side. Opaque. Optiver's transparent about how much everyone makes, but management decisions are shrouded in mystery. No one will ever give you feedback on how you're doing until your end of year review and you may be assigned to a different desk with no warning or personal input, including desks with overnight hours.

Explore other reviews about Optiver

5.0
24 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

worked on a lot of different areas of the trading stack; often close with researchers learned about technical components for data driven trading saw my impact day to day

Cons

constant office renovations were a bit distracting, but was told it should be done in 2026

3.0
21 May 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good compensation, collaborative environment. Company also seems to aim to be at forefront of new tech such as AI

Cons

When HR mgmt is on record stating things like the company shouldn’t hire females anymore, it really makes you wonder how they make decisions on who should fill management positions

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