Jane Street Capital

Jane Street Capital is a global proprietary trading firm. It employs more than 2600 people in five offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Singapore, and trades a broad range of asset classes on more than 200 venues in 45 countries.

It is among the principal market-makers – in 2020 it traded more than $17trillion worth of securities. It was considered to have helped keep bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) liquid during the market turmoil in 2020.

History
Jane Street was co-founded by Tim Reynolds, Rob Granieri, Marc Gerstein, and Michael Jenkins. Reynolds, Granieri, and Jenkins were formerly traders at Susquehanna International Group. It was started in either 1999  or 2000.

In 2012, Tim Reynolds stepped down from his position running the firm.

Activities
The firm ended 2020 having traded $4trillion in global equities, $1.4trillion in bonds, and $3.9trillion in ETFs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm saw its revenue jump 54% to a record of $10.6billion during the year ended in March 2021.

As of 2021, its trading capital was about $15bn. As well as high-frequency trading, it in some cases maintained positions for hours, even days or sometimes weeks, which is essential for ETFs that track less-traded markets. On any given day, it was holding about $50bn of securities. It is an authorised participant in 2,600 ETFs and lead market-maker on 506 ETFs, and plays an important role in maintaining ETF liquidity.

In 2023, the company generated $10.6bn in net trading revenue with adjusted earnings of $7.4bn. It released these numbers as part of a debt deal which aimed to expand the amount of cash on Jane Street's balance sheet from $4.3bn to $5.6bn.

Technology
Almost all of its software is written in the OCaml programming language.

Leadership and culture
The company is informally led by a group of 30 or 40 senior executives.

The firm's culture includes a focus on the risks of improbable but catastrophic crashes. In addition to hedging at trading desk level, Jane Street at company level spends $50m-$75m a year on put options.

Lawsuits
In April 2024, the firm brought a lawsuit against Millennium Management alleging that Millennium stole its trading strategy through engaging two of its former traders, Douglas Schadewald and Daniel Spottiswood. The firm claimed the strategy, which traded options in NSE/BSE India, earned about $1 billion in 2023.

Notable past employees

 * Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, recipients of misappropriated FTX customer funds, were once employed by the company.
 * Brett Harrison.
 * Renée DiResta.