Equity researchers are getting $800k+, finding jobs easier these days
Bank’s equity researchers might not be as well paid as their colleagues in investment banking or sales & trading, but it’s hardly a career in volunteering.
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A recent salary survey from recruitment firm Octavius Finance showed that UK-based long-only equity researchers can earn up to and over £600k ($806k) in total compensation, with salaries of up to £225k ($302k) and bonuses of up to and over 150% of base.
2026 has been a year of investment in long-only research after a long period of decline. Octavius Finance said that there was an “an extended period of cautious headcount management,” but now hiring was in a “rebuild” mode even though hiring remained “selective”.
It was a different story for long-short researchers. “Demand across the equity long/short space has remained resilient,” Octavius Finance said, but was focused on sector specialists. Long/short analysts, who usually work at hedge funds, could claim up to £200k ($267k) in salary depending on experience, with profit share related to the performance of their fund “typical”. Of course, a good enough analyst at a hedge fund becomes a portfolio manager, which unlocks a completely new tier of compensation potential.
Either way, rebuilding is a slow process. Euromoney reported at the end of 2024 that about 7,500 years of “net experience” had left the industry between 2018 and 2021, and only about 1,400 years of experience had returned.
This is, of course, related to the MiFID unbundling saga, which meant that banks had to charge buy-side clients separately for using their sales & trading and research services, rather than just charging them together in a bundle. Unbundling rules have since been revoked, but the damage is likely fatal to the industry.
Of course, AI is also impacting careers in research. Specialist producers are capable of churning out reams and reams of industry-grade research for comparatively low token costs. But there is one thing that AI cannot do, and it is an extremely lucrative skill to have: “original investment thinking remains one of the clearest differentiators between candidates,” Octavius Finance said.
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