| Jane Street Capital | |||||
| Type: | Private | ||||
| Industry: | Financial services | ||||
| Products: | High-frequency trading, Market maker[1] | ||||
| Founded: | [2] | ||||
| Hq Location: | 250 Vesey Street | ||||
| Hq Location City: | New York City | ||||
| Hq Location Country: | U.S. | ||||
| Num Employees: | 2,631[3] | ||||
| Module: |
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Jane Street Capital is a global proprietary trading firm.[4] It employs more than 2,600[5] people in six offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Chicago, and Singapore, and trades a broad range of asset classes on more than 200 venues in 45 countries.[6]
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.[7]
Jane Street was is co-founded by Tim Reynolds, Rob Granieri, Marc Gerstein, and Michael Jenkins.[8] Reynolds, Granieri, and Jenkins were formerly traders at Susquehanna International Group.[9] It was started in either 1999[10] [11] or 2000.[4]
In 2012, Tim Reynolds stepped down from his position running the firm.
The firm ended 2020 having traded $4trillion in global equities, $1.4trillion in bonds, and $3.9trillion in ETFs.[12] 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.[13]
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[14] in 2,600 ETFs and lead market-maker on 506 ETFs, and plays an important role in maintaining ETF liquidity.[15]
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.[16]
Almost all of its software is written in the OCaml programming language.[17] [18] [19] [20]
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.
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.[21] The firm claimed the strategy, which traded options in NSE/BSE India, earned about $1 billion in 2023.[22]