> The real money is at the top. The bond prospectus reveals that Jane Street has 40 “equity unit holders on a full-time basis and in good standing”, with an average tenure of 16 years. Among those there will be at least a handful of billionaires, even if no Jane Streeter appears on any rich lists.
Sounds like any other partnership. A few people at the top are providing the equity and getting a profit share, and the thousands under them are getting salaries.
The difference is that these thousands also get to invest in Jane Street, which seems a pretty profitable investment (70% margins, etc).
So they're incentivized to allow as many of their employees to invest as possible.
In contrast, if you're a prop shop that only accepts employee money, you're already dealing with your employees.
So there's no real reason for JS et al. to set large minimums, in contrast to non-prop hedge funds.
>20% return is quite easy to justify. You're also looking at a 50%-200% annual bonus, mostly leaning to the higher end of the range.
Its a very different world!
Surely this is a HN culture bubble? Very few people can borrow tens of thousands of dollars from family and friends to lend to a hedge fund. Not only would I be refused, I'd damage friendships by exposing the moral vacuum at my core.