Comp in energy trading is the most opaque thing about the industry. Recruiters lowball, headhunters pitch peak numbers, and online forums are full of either fantasy or sour grapes. Here's the actual range, by level and venue, in London in 2026, from someone who's been on the hiring side of the table.
A note on what's in scope: this guide covers front-office trading roles (trader, analyst-on-desk, structurer, originator) at firms with meaningful trading operations in London. Numbers are total compensation, base salary plus discretionary bonus, in GBP.
Where these numbers come from
Twenty-five years of being the person who signs the offers, sees the numbers and gets the angry calls when bonus day disappoints. Cross-checked with current recruiter mid-points (Kennedy Group, Eximius, Selby Jennings). Numbers are 2026 ranges; the top of each band assumes a strong year for the firm and the individual.
This is not a guarantee of what you'll earn. It is a calibrated estimate of what's normal, and what isn't.
The headline ranges
Total compensation, GBP, London, 2026:
| Level / years of experience | Bank or trading house | Hedge fund / prop | Utility / merchant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduate / Year 1 | £60k to £80k | £90k to £140k | £45k to £60k |
| Analyst on desk (Yr 2 to 3) | £90k to £150k | £150k to £300k | £60k to £90k |
| Junior trader / Yr 4 to 6 | £200k to £500k | £300k to £1m+ | £120k to £200k |
| Senior trader / Yr 7 to 12 | £500k to £2m | £700k to £5m+ | £200k to £500k |
| Head of book / desk | £1m to £5m | £2m to £15m+ | £400k to £1m |
A few things stand out from the table that are worth saying out loud.
Why the ranges are so wide
Energy trading comp at the senior end is almost entirely P&L-linked. A senior gas trader having a great year on a big book at a top-three trading house can clear high-single-digit millions. The same trader on a quiet year on a smaller book might clear £400k. The role is the same. The number is not.
This is the single biggest mental adjustment for people coming from other industries. Your salary is a small fraction of your comp. Your bonus is a function of (a) the firm's year, (b) your desk's year, (c) your individual P&L and (d) the discretionary judgement of your boss about your contribution. Most years, all four are positive together. Some years, only one is. Welcome.
Comp by venue, in detail
Investment banks (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPM, Citi, Macquarie)
Banks pay competitive base salaries, the highest of the three categories at junior level, but cap bonuses more aggressively than independents. A bank-side senior trader on a big year is unlikely to clear more than £2m to £3m. The bid is structure: better risk systems, better balance sheet, better pension, better brand. The squeeze is upside.
Macquarie deserves a special mention. Their commodity business punches above its weight and they pay accordingly, closer to a hedge fund than a traditional bank in many seats.
Trading houses (Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria, Gunvor, Hartree, Glencore)
The most P&L-linked seats outside of hedge funds. Trading houses run principal books, hold inventories and pay up dramatically for performance. Junior comp is competitive but not eye-watering; senior comp at the top houses can rival or exceed hedge funds. Vitol and Trafigura senior partners have, in good years, taken home eight figures.
The cultural trade-off: trading houses are entrepreneurial, lean and unforgiving. There is less infrastructure than a bank. Your edge is meant to come from you: your information network, your physical optimisation, your nerve.
Hedge funds & prop shops (Citadel, Millennium, DRW, IMC, Squarepoint, specialised commodity funds)
The highest absolute upside in the industry, with the highest variance. The pod-shop multi-strats (Citadel, Millennium, Point72) increasingly run dedicated commodity teams in London. Comp is tightly linked to your team's net P&L, often via a contractual percentage. Hire-fire cycles are short. Pods that lose more than a stop-loss percentage typically get shut.
Specialised commodity hedge funds (Andurand, Westbeck, Northlander, Per Lekander's funds) are smaller, more concentrated and more idiosyncratic. Comp is still P&L-linked but more discretionary at the senior level.
Utilities and merchants (RWE, EDF Trading, Statkraft, Uniper, Centrica, Vattenfall, Engie)
The most balanced lifestyle, the lowest comp ceiling. Base salaries are good, bonuses are modest by trading standards but generous by industry standards, and the work is genuinely interesting: you're hedging real generation assets and running a proprietary book on top. If you want a long, sustainable career in trading without the prop-shop intensity, a utility seat is criminally underrated.
What gets you paid
Across every venue, the things that move comp meaningfully are the same:
- P&L attribution. Can the desk head defend your contribution to the book in front of the management committee? If yes, you'll be paid. If no, you'll be told "it was a desk effort" and paid the floor.
- Risk discipline. A trader who makes £5m with three drawdowns inside the firm's risk limits is worth more than a trader who made £10m with a single £8m mark-to-market drawdown that scared the CRO. Senior management remembers the drawdown for years.
- Originality. Did your edge come from doing what everyone else did, or from a thesis nobody else had? Originality compounds. Following the desk does not.
- Client / counterparty value (banks & trading houses). Did you bring in flow? Did you keep a key counterparty happy through a difficult quarter? Did you structure something other desks couldn't? This is invisible to outsiders and obvious to insiders.
- The threat of leaving. Yes, really. Senior comp is almost always set with reference to where else you could go. If your boss believes you have a credible alternative, your number goes up. If they don't, it doesn't. Invest in your external optionality long before you need it.
What doesn't get you paid (despite what you've been told)
- Hours. Nobody on the trading floor is impressed that you worked until 11pm. They want to know what you produced.
- Internal politics. Politics keeps you employed; performance pays you. Don't confuse the two.
- The MBA from your weekend programme. Genuinely irrelevant on a desk.
- "Loyalty." A desk that uses the word loyalty in a comp conversation is signalling that they intend to underpay you. Polite firms don't need to use the word.
The negotiation rules nobody tells you
Three things to internalise before your first comp conversation:
1. The first number you say is almost always too low
Recruiters and HR will push you for an early "expectations" number. Resist. The honest answer is "I'm focused on the role and the team, I'd want to understand the comp structure and how P&L is attributed before I anchor on a number." If they push back, push back harder. Anyone who refuses to discuss role specifics before pinning your salary has told you something important about how they'll treat you on bonus day.
2. Bonus structure matters more than headline number
Two offers can both quote £400k year-one total comp and be wildly different. One is £200k base + £200k guaranteed + discretionary on top; the other is £150k base + a percentage of book P&L over a hurdle. The first is worth more in year one; the second is worth more over a career. You almost always want optionality, not certainty, in years three onward.
3. Get the deferral schedule on paper
Senior bank and hedge fund comp is increasingly deferred: some over four years with vesting cliffs and clawbacks. Two offers with the same headline number can have very different cash-in-hand outcomes. Ask. Read it. If they won't put it in writing, that's the answer.
Politics keeps you employed; performance pays you. Don't confuse the two.
The comp curve over a career
For a trader on a mainstream career path who keeps performing, here's the rough shape of total comp over time at a top-tier London venue:
- Years 1 to 3 (analyst): £60k → £150k. The grind. You are accumulating skills, not money.
- Years 4 to 6 (junior trader): £150k → £500k. You start earning real money the year you start running a book that the firm respects.
- Years 7 to 10 (established trader): £500k → £1.5m. The skill plateau is settled; the comp range is wide and depends almost entirely on which desk and which year.
- Years 10+ (senior / head): £1m → £5m+. At this level your number is less about your role and more about your last three years' P&L and the firm's franchise.
This is the curve people on the outside don't see. The first three years look brutal compared to tech, consulting or banking M&A. The middle years are competitive. The senior years are uncatchable in any other corporate career.
One last thought on comp and the rest of your life
I have seen many traders in their forties earning £2m+ a year who are miserable. I have seen many traders in their forties earning £400k a year who are deeply content. Comp is not the only variable. The desk, the boss, the product, the city, the hours: all of it matters.
Optimise for comp early in your career, when comp differences compound the fastest. Then, as you get senior, optimise increasingly for the work and the people. The traders who do this in the right order tend to end up wealthy and happy. The traders who only optimise for the number end up wealthy.
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