How Jane Street’s secret billion-dollar trade unraveled

Planet Money

Sep 24

Overview Shownote Highlights Transcript Chapters Pins

Shownote

On Wall Street, fortunes are often won and lost with the tiniest advantages. And for the past few years, one trading firm has stood out from the rest for both huge profits and careful secrecy — Jane Street Group. But last year, one of Jane Street’s bigges...

Highlights

In the high-stakes world of algorithmic trading, where secrecy is currency, a rare courtroom battle has pulled back the curtain on one of Wall Street’s most elusive firms. What began as an internal dispute over stolen trading strategies quickly spiraled into a global reckoning over market fairness, regulatory power, and the invisible hand of automated finance shaping emerging economies.

03:17

Jane Street made about a billion dollars from the trading strategy in 2023.

12:56

Jane Street used algorithms to exploit price imbalances caused by inexperienced traders

19:00

90% of retail investors were losing money in the Indian options market

25:16

SEBI claims Jane Street made over $500 million illegally by manipulating index prices

Chapters

How a lawsuit exposed Wall Street's best-kept trading secret