FAQ

• Is Jane Street a hedge fund?
• What are Jane Street's returns like?
• How has the subprime crisis affected Jane Street?
• What is a day in the life of a Jane Street employee like?
• How is working for Jane Street different from working at an investment bank?
• How is working for Jane Street different from working at a hedge fund?
• Is Jane Street hiring given the current market conditions?
• Does Jane Street hire first-year and second-year college students as interns?

Is Jane Street a hedge fund?

Unlike a traditional hedge fund, Jane Street's focus is on trading, not investing. We don't raise money from outside investors, and we don't have clients or customers.
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What are Jane Street's returns like?

Jane Street's trading is labor intensive rather than capital intensive, so we don't measure performance by the traditional metrics. The key component to our success isn't fundraising but hiring and training great people.
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How has the subprime crisis affected Jane Street?

As a proprietary trading firm without long-term investment positions, Jane Street has successfully navigated the volatility resulting from the subprime crisis. We've continued to grow throughout the crisis.
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What is a day in the life of a Jane Street employee like?

The answer differs enormously depending on role, but all employees work in collaborative teams and interact with many areas of the firm and its business.
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How is working for Jane Street different from working at an investment bank?

At Jane Street, there aren't formal hierarchies or job titles, and everyone works for the growth of the firm, rather than their individual business group. We don’t have captive customers, so we have to win by being better than the competition every day. And we’re still small enough that there are countless unexplored opportunities; we’ve always been in the position of having more trading ideas to pursue than people to execute them.
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How is working for Jane Street different from working at a hedge fund?

Jane Street’s capital is proprietary, whereas a hedge fund trades investor money and keeps some of the profit. As a result, our attitude to risk is very conservative. We also avoid possible conflicts of interest between money manager and investor, as they are the same group of people. Another key difference is growth; hedge funds grow by getting more money under management, whereas Jane Street grows by hiring and training exceptional people.
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Is Jane Street hiring given the current market conditions?

Absolutely. We’re hiring for all areas of our business: operations, trading, software, research, systems.
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Does Jane Street hire first-year and second-year college students as interns?

Yes, but the large majority of interns we hire are only one year away from graduation.
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