Titles are not portable
VP does not mean the same thing across institutions. Emerald reads title against firm hierarchy, scope, product, and accountability rather than treating it as a universal level.
Trading and markets
Trading and markets recruiting.
Emerald recruits across sales and trading, derivatives, macro, credit, equities, structuring, execution, and electronic trading. This page is for desks hiring a specific product seat, and for candidates whose bank title does not travel cleanly.
The market
Where the talent sits, and what usually goes wrong.
The market is the product and the desk, not a generic “markets” bucket. Sell-side compensation is generally more base-heavy and less volatile. Hedge-fund economics can be more performance-driven, with wider dispersion depending on strategy, seat, and investment results.
Role distinctions
The differences that change the slate.
Sell side and hedge fund pay
A sell-side package and a hedge-fund package are different shapes. Comparing only the base, or only the headline number, misstates the seat.
Product before platform
Macro, credit, equities, structuring, and electronic execution draw different people. A search that collapses them into “trading” interviews the wrong market.
How Emerald runs it
Map, then screen.
The intake names the product, the book or coverage, and what the person must already have done. Emerald then maps that seat, challenges the level if the title is doing too much work, and brings a short slate.
For clients
Tell us the product and the decision the hire will own. If the compensation will not clear the pool, Emerald will say so before the process burns a quarter.
For candidates
Bring the product, the scope, and the compensation shape you are actually in. A title without that context is not enough for Emerald to represent you.
Proof
What we can actually say.
Emerald’s public claim on retention is conservative on purpose: more than 80% of tracked placements remain with the firms where Emerald placed them. The figure is a floor from the record through October 2023.
Questions we actually get
How do VP and Director titles map across investment banks?
They do not map cleanly. Emerald interprets the title against the firm’s hierarchy, the product, the scope, and the accountability. “VP” is not a universal level.
How do sell-side and hedge-fund compensation structures differ?
Sell-side compensation is generally more base-heavy and less volatile. Hedge-fund economics can be more performance-driven, with wider dispersion by strategy, seat, and results. Emerald does not publish a dollar table in place of that distinction.