Pay at hedge fund Millennium is still enormous
If you’re a trader who wants to work for a hedge fund, Millennium has something going for it. The hedge fund is divided globally into independently run teams, each of which is rewarded proportionate to its own results. Whereas other large funds pay on the basis of ‘netting’ (gains minus losses) across strategies, Millennium’s pay structure is more granular – if your team’s strategy does well, you’ll be rewarded, even if all other teams at the fund make a loss.
What does this mean for salaries and bonuses at an individual level? Millennium doesn’t divulge pay globally, but the fund’s two UK-based entities, Millennium Capital Management Ltd. (the UK holding company, which includes all administrative and investment staff) and Millennium Capital Partners LLP (the partnership comprised predominantly of the investment staff) publish annual accounts, with pay figures included.
Both entities have just published accounts for 2021. They reveal that Millennium is still an intensely lucrative place to work, even if it's a little less lucrative for its partners than it used to be.
Last year, Millennium Capital Ltd. employed 566 people (237 professionals and 304 'admins'), up from 428 in 2020. It paid them a total of £511m, or a very generous £903k ($1m) per head. This was 4% more than in 2020.
The 16 partners at Millennium Capital Partners LLP also did pretty well for themselves. When salaries and profits available for distribution to partners are combined, they were each paid an average of £13m last year, although they might have been a little disappointed with this given that average partner compensation was nearly £19m in 2020. It's worth noting, however, that not all the partners at Millennium are actual human beings - some are corporate entities, who also typically receive a hefty share of the profits.
Even so, working for Millennium can clearly be a pleasing experience. Profits at Millennium Capital Management Ltd went from £13m to £19m last year. At Millennium Capital Partners LLP they went from £70m to £74m.
In his investor letter of February 2022, Millennium founder Izzy Englander said the fund has created a new class of "senior portfolio managers" who its portfolio managers report to, and that it's been hiring for support functions like technology under chief information officer Vlad Torgovnik.
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