XR Trading: Careers, Interviews & Pay Guide 2026

XR Trading in One Paragraph

XR Trading is a Chicago-based proprietary market-making firm founded in 2002. It trades only its own capital, providing automated liquidity in futures, options, equities, Treasuries, FX and other listed markets, and it hires traders, quantitative researchers and software engineers who work in small cross-functional teams. It is often searched as "XR Trade", but it is not a retail trading platform or broker: the firm states on its website that it does not accept outside investment or client funds.

Most candidates who can name Jane Street, Citadel Securities and Optiver have never heard of XR. That is typical of the Chicago mid-sized prop firms - Belvedere, Old Mission, Wolverine, Akuna - that trade a lot of volume and do almost no marketing. For graduates targeting market making, these firms are worth putting on the list: the interviews reward the same skills as the famous names, the competition for each seat is thinner, and the work is close to the markets from day one.

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XR Trading at a Glance

Treat the headcount as approximate. Private trading firms do not publish staff numbers, and directory estimates lag reality.

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What XR Trading Actually Does

XR started as a fixed-income shop and branched out from there. Industry profiles describe the firm as organised into several trading teams, each focused on a separate asset class: equity index futures, Treasuries, energy, metals, agricultural products and foreign exchange, with equity options and cash equities alongside.

The business is automated market making. XR continuously quotes bid and ask prices on exchange-listed products, earns a small spread when both sides trade, and manages the inventory risk that builds up in between. The edge comes from three places:

1. Pricing - knowing the fair value of a contract more accurately than competitors, especially in related products such as a future and its options
2. Speed and reliability - the in-house systems must update quotes before the market moves against them
3. Risk management - hedging inventory quickly and cheaply across correlated instruments

If that model is unfamiliar, our market making guide explains how the spread, adverse selection and inventory risk interact, and the options market making guide covers the options side.

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Culture and the Shape of the Firm

The firm describes its environment as eliminating "the traditional divide between idea makers and programmers". In practice that means traders, quants and developers sit on the same team and own a strategy together, rather than researchers throwing models over a wall to engineers.

Two consequences matter for candidates:

• Scope arrives early. At a firm of this size a new hire's work reaches production quickly. That is attractive if you want responsibility and less attractive if you want a long structured training programme like the ones at Optiver or SIG.
• Remote work is real. XR's own website says traders, developers and most technical staff have the option to work fully remote. That is rare in prop trading, where most firms insist on the trading floor. Ask how teams actually operate day to day, since remote-friendly policies vary by desk.

One practical note from the firm's recent internship postings: at least some roles stated that XR does not sponsor employment visas. Check the specific posting before you apply if you will need sponsorship.

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Roles and What They Involve

Trader. Monitors and adjusts automated strategies, manages risk across positions, and works with developers and quants to improve pricing and execution. The skills tested are the classic market-making set: fast mental arithmetic, probability, expected value and composure under uncertainty.

Quantitative researcher. Builds the pricing, volatility and signal models that strategies run on. Expect statistics, time series, options theory and Python or C++ research code. See our quant research interview questions for the question style.

Software engineer. Builds and maintains the low-latency trading systems, market-data handlers, risk tools and research infrastructure. C++ dominates the latency-sensitive code; Python is common for tooling and data. XR has also advertised a paid, year-round (not summer) IT internship in Chicago focused on Python, Node.js and database projects.

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The XR Trading Interview Process

XR does not publish a fixed interview structure, and candidate reports are thinner than for the large firms. Based on public job postings and reported experiences at comparable Chicago market makers, expect three stages.

Stage 1: Application and Online Assessment

Applications go through the firm's careers site. Trader candidates should expect a timed numerical test - mental arithmetic, sequences and probability - of the kind described in our quant online assessments guide. Developer candidates typically get a coding test at LeetCode easy-to-medium level.

Stage 2: Phone or Video Interviews

One or two technical interviews. For traders: probability puzzles, expected-value questions and quick estimation. For developers: data structures, algorithms and, for systems roles, C++ specifics such as memory management and object lifetimes. For researchers: statistics and a walk through your most substantial project.

Stage 3: Final Round

Several back-to-back interviews with traders, quants and engineers, plus a fit conversation. Trader finals at market makers commonly include a market-making game: the interviewer asks you to make a two-sided market on an uncertain quantity and then trades against you.

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Question Types to Prepare

Mental maths. Multiply two-digit numbers, convert fractions to percentages, and compute expected values quickly without paper. Drill with the mental maths trainer and our quant mental maths questions.

Probability and expected value. Typical examples: the expected number of rolls of a die until a six, the probability two cards drawn share a suit, the fair price of a game paying the maximum of two dice. The quant probability interview questions page has worked solutions for this style.

Market making. "Make me a market on the number of piano tuners in Chicago." The interviewer wants a sensible width, a centre you can justify, and sensible updates when they trade with you. If they buy your offer twice, your estimate was probably too low.

Coding (developers). Arrays, hash maps, heaps and graph traversal, then C++ questions for systems roles. Our C++ quant interview questions cover the language-level material.

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Estimated Compensation

XR does not publish pay, and there are too few public data points to quote firm-specific bands with confidence. The ranges below are estimates based on comparable mid-sized Chicago market makers such as Belvedere, Akuna and Old Mission, not XR-confirmed figures.

Pay at prop firms is base plus a discretionary bonus linked to trading performance, so dispersion widens quickly after the first two years. The elite tier - Jane Street, Citadel Securities, Hudson River Trading - pays graduates more; see the US quant salary guide for how the tiers compare.

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A Four-Week Prep Plan

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How XR Compares with Other Chicago Prop Firms

For the wider picture, including the top-tier firms, see our prop trading firms tier list and the XR Trading firm profile.

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Where This Guide Falls Short

XR is private and publishes little. The interview stages above are pieced together from job postings and reports from similar firms, and compensation is peer-based. If you interview there, the firm's recruiters are the authoritative source on process and pay.

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Compensation & recruiting notes

All pay figures are illustrative estimates drawn from public reporting and comparable firms. They are not provided or endorsed by XR Trading, and actual offers vary by role, office, year and performance. Nothing here guarantees an interview, an offer or any outcome.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does XR Trading do?

XR Trading is a Chicago proprietary market-making firm founded in 2002. It trades its own capital, quoting automated bid and ask prices in futures, options, equities, Treasuries, FX and commodities, and earns the spread while managing inventory risk.

Is XR Trade a broker or trading platform?

No. "XR Trade" searches usually refer to XR Trading, a proprietary trading firm. It does not take client money or outside investment and says so on its own website. Be wary of anyone offering to manage your money in XR Trading's name.

Does XR Trading hire graduates?

Yes. XR hires traders, quantitative researchers and software engineers, and has advertised internships, including a paid year-round IT internship in Chicago. Check each posting for location and visa requirements.

How hard is the XR Trading interview?

Comparable to other mid-sized Chicago market makers: an online numerical or coding test, technical phone interviews, then a final round. Fast mental maths, solid probability and calm market-making games matter most for traders.

Can you work remotely at XR Trading?

According to the firm, traders, developers and most technical staff have the option to work fully remote, which is unusual in proprietary trading.

How much does XR Trading pay graduates?

XR does not publish pay. Based on comparable Chicago prop firms, graduate traders and developers can expect roughly $150,000 to $250,000 in first-year total compensation, with wide variation by role and performance.