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Comment by fdgsdfogijq | Hacker News Reader

That's not what I have heard. Specifically know people who have gotten offers, mostly in the 150k range with zero stock. Alameda research is also just random devs that went to MIT with a few years experience. Impressive to go to that school, but clearly not experienced enough to run a real finance operation. Zero real finance people.

If they were serious they would have hired portfolio managers with decades of experience.

Its the same thing as three arrows capital, random people ending up with a bunch of capital, overestimating their intelligence due to a bull market run, and ending up with nothing

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> Zero real finance people

Debate old as time. I agree with you but this happens every cycle. RenTech doesn't have "real finance people" either. Maybe the problem was that they just had the wrong people, not their level of realness.

And Alameda seemed to be mainly people from Jane Street? There is a difference between trading firms with good tech (Jane Street) and firms taking prop risk (DE Shaw)...just based on what has been released, I agree that they didn't seem to know what they were doing. Unfortunately, the market doesn't know you went to MIT.

And they wouldn't have hired PMs with decades of experience, because no PM with decades of experience would have worked there.

> There is a difference between trading firms with good tech (Jane Street) and firms taking prop risk (DE Shaw)

What do you mean by this? What is DE Shaw doing that Jane Street isn't?

DE Shaw takes directional risk. They have a lot of conventional strategies iirc (distressed debt, credit, etc.). Jane Street does a lot of ETF AP and other strategies that optimize for technology (afaik).

Alameda is/was strategies that optimize for technology, arbitrage etc. But with a massive one way directional long bet over the top.

Run by people with 1-2 years experience in shops that run a market neutral profile , in an environment where they believed the underlying asset goes up every single day.

I've worked with a crypto trading firm before, one of FTX's otc clients. In that industry we hire based on referrals and rarely on credentials. A trustworthy person who earns the company $0 is worth more than an unvetted one that could stab the company in the back anytime in the future.

due diligence to maintain the ponzi scheme; incredible.

definitely know one guy hired by FTX intl in the past 6 months

so "If they wanted you, they got in touch." seems true to me

"If they wanted you, they got in touch."

you make it sound like a prestigious elite club. it was a scam, and it should be called out as such.

also again i personally know two people that received stingy offers from them

FTX made a boatload of money. They just threw it all away at the casino.

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