Wall Street’s leading market maker, Jane Street, generated a record US$39.6 billion in net trading revenue last year, according to documents and sources familiar with the matter. This performance saw the firm leapfrog its biggest high-speed trading rivals and several prominent investment banks, including JPMorgan. The substantial revenue figure cements Jane Street’s position at the top of the pecking order as market makers capitalised on heightened market volatility throughout the year to generate record profits.
Jane Street, which employs 3,500 people, provides market liquidity by buying and selling a wide range of financial products. These include ETFs, equities, bonds, options, commodities, and currencies on exchanges and trading venues worldwide. The firm’s profits last year were also boosted by a jump in the valuation of its stakes in several highly valued private startups, such as AI lab Anthropic, and it houses a hedge-fund-like operation that holds positions in asset classes over several weeks and months.
The latest figures place Jane Street well ahead of its nearest competitors. Citadel Securities posted trading revenue of about US$12.2 billion last year, a 25% increase from the prior year, while Hudson River Trading reported approximately US$12.3 billion in trading revenue. Wall Street’s leading banks also enjoyed a boom in trading profits in recent quarters, with JPMorgan Chase generating US$35.8 billion in trading revenue last year, and Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup reporting a jump in first-quarter trading revenue. Jane Street, which declined to comment, has not taken on any outside capital, allowing it to take larger positions and hold them through periods when such risks pay off.
