Comment by paulpauper
3 years ago
This seems like a sub-optimal way of finding top talent, even though the results still speak for themselves. Obviously Jane Street has had a lot of success using brain teasers to screen for talent.
If i were a hedge fund recruiter, here is what I would do:
Go on /r/ wallstreetbets and find guys who consistently are pulling huge $ like this guy:
https://old.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/14a9xyi/11m...
Send a DM job offer to all of them, 7 figures plus performance comp , or at least an interview that will be paid anyway, so as to not waste the recipient's time.
Why ask brain teasers to try to find skills that correlate with trading when you can just pick out the best traders who already have demonstrable skill? that is how sports recruiting works. they find the people who can play the sport at best level.
Jane Street is a market maker.
WSB is a gambling forum where people are addicted to chasing huge rewards by taking huge risks.
This would be about as interesting as going to a casino and recruting people who have a big win streak at the slot machine.
but there is evidence that some traders there are more skilled than others, like the guy I linked to (or someone like Warren Buffett or Jim Simons ). it's not all random like a casino. Plus, to make so much money at options trading so consistently, requires knowledge of position sizing, market intuition, pattern recognition, and other skills relevant for all aspects of trading.