Whenever I read articles like this, I try to remind myself that there's an entrepreneurial component to finance as well. One of my friends from school was a trader for several years at a major bank. In 2012, his MD slashed his comp and the theme communicated to him was, like in the article, if you aren't happy with it, then "Just Go". He left. He took a handful of his smartest peers with him, and started a hedge fund where he now runs 500 million dollars and is up 15% on the year. If you lower compensation across the board, you provide more incentive for the rock stars like this to leave and create value elsewhere instead of for your firm. In this case, my friend took risk, and earned a reward, and I don't think anyone begrudges him the many millions of dollars more he will now earn in his new position.
It's not too different in tech. I have developers who work for me who I have to pay $250k/year + serious benefits, because if I didn't, I know they'd either start their own company or be poached by an early stage team. For me the challenge is figuring out who the real rock stars are from amidst the vast sea of wannabes.
volatility is the de facto measure of risk for a portfolio/trading strategy (there are more measures but vol is common). People tend to measure performance on a risk-adjusted basis (for example the Sharpe or Information Ratio) because in an ideal world an investor could theoretically lever/delever a portfolio to a level of risk they are comfortable with. All things being equal a higher Sharpe ratio would give you more returns for the same amount of risk as a portfolio with a lower Sharpe ratio.
most traders cannot simply move out and start their own fund. Their skills are not directly transferable to fund management and the risks in trying to set up a new fund are high.
It's not too different in tech. I have developers who work for me who I have to pay $250k/year + serious benefits, because if I didn't, I know they'd either start their own company or be poached by an early stage team. For me the challenge is figuring out who the real rock stars are from amidst the vast sea of wannabes.