Hacker News Reader

To be fair, there are a lot of other ways to "make a killing" in HFT which are not developing software and algorithms for hedge funds or large banks.

Or maybe he just lied? He doesn't seem like the most trustworthy kind of guy to begin with.

> Are we supposed to believe that a person who dropped out of college, with no computer science or programming background, is hired by a hedge fund or the proprietary trading desk of a large bank to help develop their HFT software and algorithms?

No kidding. Not to mention, if he indeed 'made a killing' in the finance industry, why would he be hustling trying to resell iPads and now Air-bnb suites? Seems something programming-related or becoming an ex-pat in a tropical country with nice beaches would be more suitable for someone in their 20's that hates their job and has a lot of money...

I was surprised by that as well, but there may be some explanation. For example, he was a teenage hacker and had connections - through his family or other. So maybe he knew someone at a high frequency trading hedge fund who saw that the guy could code, and gave him a chance.

I agree that it's a bit far fetched, but IMHO it's plausible and I wouldn't be surprised if more than one person had already landed a lucrative job in the financial sector that way.