[qub1t]

The problem with stock options is that the majority of their value is not directly tied with your individual performance. You can be a stellar employee but your options could turn out to be worthless. Likewise, you could be extremely mediocre but end up winning the lottery and your options become very valuable.

With wall street bonuses, as long as you perform well, you get rewarded for it. Its a much more "meritocratic" system, there are cases when a hedge fund will lose money overall but individuals within the fund still get large bonuses because the areas they were responsible for did well.