Posts by Paul Rowady

About Paul Rowady

Paul Rowady is the Director of Research for Alphacution, a research and strategic advisory platform uniquely focused on modeling and benchmarking the impacts of technology on global financial markets and the businesses of trading and asset management. He is a 35-year veteran of the proprietary, quantitative and derivatives trading arenas.

Contact: [email protected]

Strategies and Structures: Why Jane Street is Not a Hedge Fund

Perhaps because they want to be part of one of the biggest market stories of the year - but don't really know what to say - an "argument" has been floated that Jane Street is actually a hedge fund instead of a market maker. Though Alphacution would rather not bring more attention to this shallowness, it's important for us to make the distinction for why Jane Street is not a hedge fund...
By Paul Rowady | August 30, 2026 | Open
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Jane Street Removes Its Mask

Uniquely, Alphacution has been analyzing Jane Street's trading methods for years. That Jane Street became a central player in one of the biggest stories in US markets for 2026 to date is no surprise to us. Despite all that, this Feed post is part of an analysis of the group's most recent Q1 and Q2 2026 13F filings wherein we provide new details about Jane Street's core trading strategy and the increasingly clear role of an affiliate, Jane Street Global...
By Paul Rowady | August 28, 2026 | Premium Subscribers
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Jane Street Global Trading: All In On Artificial Intelligence

Apparently, in Jane Street's world, an historic $15 billion monthly loss in the context of a $40 billion year-to-date gain for 2026 is the new normal. Naturally, the directional risk of longer-term discretionary bets lowers Sharpe Ratios. No big deal. However, beyond the spin and gaslighting for the debt holders, Alphacution believes something else is going on here that's strange and unprecedented and further supports the thesis presented in our recent case study, "How Jane Street Generates Alpha." The analysis...
By Paul Rowady | August 18, 2026 | Premium Subscribers
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The Manchurian Hedge Fund Manager

Why is so much attention being showered on less-than-novice hedge fund manager, Leopold Aschenbrenner, and his now-paradoxically-named fund, Situational Awareness? Along with an analysis of Leo's strategy and holdings, Alphacution asks the question that no one wants to ask too loudly in this "kayfabe" market: Cui bono?
By Paul Rowady | August 11, 2026 | Open
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Has Citadel Securities Lost Its Crown?

Not since the early post-GFC era had the rankings of the top few proprietary market makers by option open interest changed. But, at the end of Q1 2026, it happened: Jane Street overtook Citadel Securities in a dramatic and decisive manner to capture the #2 spot behind perennially top ranked Susquehanna International Group (SIG). Was this event CitSec's loss? Jane Street's gain? Or, something attributable to market evolution? Alphacution uses this unusual scenario to explore specific strategies of the top...
By Paul Rowady | July 2, 2026 | Premium Subscribers
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The Quant 100 Rankings, Part II – Strategy Clues

With all the attention currently being paid to the most profitable quantitative trading shops, the one area where Alphacution has the most distinctive voice is around the core strategies of these players. Coupled with our contextual modeling approach and proprietary ecosystem framework, there is no other independent source of research on these players and their strategies quite like it. The recent publication of Alphacution's "Quant 100 Rankings" was intentionally included with little narrative. In this Feed post, we change that...
By Paul Rowady | July 1, 2026 | Premium Subscribers
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The Quant 100 Rankings, Part I

Based on its "Quant 100 List," Alphacution presents select rankings from an analysis of 70 basic US equity and equity option factors based on Q1 2026 data. Moreover, for the first time ever, Alphacution is providing a link to the source data for this analysis to enterprise subscribers with download rights...
By Paul Rowady | June 25, 2026 | Premium Subscribers
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The Quant 100 List

Based on Alphacution's proprietary assembly of the 13F dataset, the following represents an alphabetical list of the top "100" players in quantitative trading as of the end of Q1 2026. For those who are new to Alphacution or for those who may benefit from a reminder, this list – along with a cast of stakeholders, like exchanges, solution providers, banks, and others – is where we draw inspiration for our ongoing research roadmap…
By Paul Rowady | June 25, 2026 | Open
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