The viral news of this extraordinary offer highlighted Jane Street’s lucrative compensation and rigorous recruitment process, which aligns with its global practice of hiring from top-tier universities such as MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton, and Stanford.
And yet the low-profile Wall Street firm operates away from the public glare.
Jane Street Group LLC operated in India through its associate entities — JSI Investments Private Limited and JSI2 Investments Private Ltd.
Jane Street pulled off a Rs 36,500 crore alleged market scam making a whopping Rs 43,289 crore options profits while deliberately losing Rs 7,208 crore in futures and equities.
The market watchdog in a 105 page order issued on Thursday imposed comprehensive interim restrictions on Jane Street pending detailed investigation. Jane Street entities are completely restrained from accessing securities markets and prohibited from buying, selling, or dealing in securities directly or indirectly.The regulator also ordered impounding of Rs 4,843.57 crore in unlawful gains, requiring Jane Street to deposit this amount in an escrow account with a lien in favor of SEBI. All bank accounts, demat accounts, and custodial accounts are frozen, with no debits allowed without SEBI permission (though credits can be accepted).Jane Street has contested the order and stated it will engage further with the Sebi. In an emailed response to Reuters, the firm said, “Jane Street is committed to operating in compliance with all regulations in every region where we operate globally. We dispute the findings of the SEBI interim order and will continue to engage with the regulator.”
Read More: Explained: What is Jane Street and how it made Rs 36,500 crore profit by gaming Dalal Street
Founded in 2000, Jane Street is renowned globally as one of the most sophisticated high-frequency trading (HFT) firms, executing trades worth hundreds of billions of dollars across multiple asset classes. The company employs over 2,600 people across five offices spanning the US, Europe, and Asia, and operates in 45 countries.
The Jane Street Group LLC’s associate entities operating in India were initially identified based on the domain janestreet.com, provided at the time of opening of trading accounts. Sebi concluded that this domain association corroborates the view that all the entities form part of the global operations of the Jane Street Group.
Read More: Sebi may widen Jane Street probe to other indices, exchanges: Report
Indian recruitment process: who gets hired and why?
Jane Street seeks individuals with exceptional mathematical abilities and advanced programming skills, crucial for roles at its high-stakes trading desks. Its recruitment process is famously rigorous, involving multiple rounds of challenging quantitative interviews, probability puzzles, coding assessments, and real-time problem-solving tasks designed to test not just technical knowledge but also mental agility.
India offers the company a reservoir of talented engineers and quantitative specialists. India’s growing clout as one of the world’s top five capital markets, makes it an attractive frontier for many like Jane Street to open networks. By building a strong presence in India, Jane Street aimed to tap into local talent for its global trading strategies while capitalizing on opportunities in Dalal Street’s dynamic derivatives market.
Also Read: Jane Street Fallout: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath flags risk to brokers and stock exchanges
Globally, Jane Street operates through various regulated entities, including SEC-registered broker-dealers in the US, FCA-regulated firms in the UK, and authorized entities in Hong Kong and the Netherlands — each a subsidiary of Jane Street Group LLC — underscoring its commitment to rigorous compliance and operational excellence.
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