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🍋 Jane Street’s Printing Money

🍋 Jane Street’s Printing Money

Plus: GameStop is bidding for eBay, Spirit Airlines shut down, and KKR just raised $10 billion for AI infrastructure.

Short Squeez
May 04, 2026

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“Wealth isn't a distinction. If I have no other achievement to my credit than the accumulation of wealth, then I have made a poor success of my life.” — John Rockefeller

Good Morning! GameStop is preparing a bid for eBay as Ryan Cohen pushes to turn the retailer into a $100B juggernaut. Pickleball Inc. raised a record $225M from Apollo and Dundon. Spirit Airlines shut down after its government rescue fizzled.

KKR secured over $10B to launch an AI infrastructure company. Apple rose on strong iPhone and China sales in Q2. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund raised $6B for later-stage bets, its largest haul ever.

Plus: Ares and JPMorgan inked an $800M private credit deal for GoodLife, McKinsey will use AI agents to pick client teams, and SoftBank-backed OPay tapped Citi, Deutsche, and JPM for a US IPO.

See how your net worth stacks up against your peers. Download the Coverd app today.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Jane Street’s Printing Money

Jane Street just put up a crazy year that blew the rest of Wall Street out of the water. The secretive trading giant generated $39.6 billion in trading revenue last year, more than the biggest banks and well ahead of market-making peers.

On a per-employee basis, that works out to roughly $11 million of revenue per person across just 3,500 employees, and about $9 million of profit per employee, which is genuinely unheard of in finance.

For context, JPMorgan generated $35.8 billion in trading revenue with 316,000 employees. Jane Street beat them with about 1% of the headcount. So Jane Street is basically running finance's most profitable math club.

And the employees got paid like it. Jane Street handed out $9.38 billion in compensation, more than double the prior year. That works out to about $2.68 million per employee on average, almost seven times Goldman Sachs' average payout. Obviously, not everyone is taking home that number and comp is likely top-heavy. But even as an average, it is one of the wildest comp stats on the Street.

The bigger story is how Jane Street became a juggernaut. The firm started in 2000 trading ADRs, expanded into ETFs, and then rode the electronification of basically every asset class from stocks, bonds, ETFs, crypto, startups, and AI. The firm now has $45 billion of members’ equity, up nearly 2,000% since 2016, giving it an enormous internal capital base to trade with. That firepower lets Jane Street move fast, take risk, and capitalize on market volatility without leaning on outside capital the way banks do.

It also helps that Jane Street is not burdened by the same regulatory framework as the big bank trading desks. JPMorgan, Goldman, and Morgan Stanley have balance sheets wrapped in capital rules and regulatory handcuffs. Jane Street has math PhDs, puzzle nerds, partner capital, and a very large appetite for profitable chaos. That is a pretty good setup when markets are volatile, and liquidity is valuable.

The firm has also turned into a quiet AI power player. Jane Street has scored big on Anthropic, invested another $1 billion into CoreWeave, and is reportedly in funding talks with cloud-computing startup Fluidstack. So this is not just a market-making firm clipping spreads anymore. It is a trading empire with a venture book, an AI angle, and more capital than most hedge funds could dream of.

Takeaway: Jane Street is moving different right now. Its numbers aren't normal. That is a money-printing machine with better engineers than most tech companies and fewer regulatory headaches than the banks. Goldman still has the brand. JPMorgan still has the fortress balance sheet. But Jane Street may have the best business model in finance right now.

PRESENTED BY COVERD

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It breaks down all of your spending, estimates your net worth, and shows how you stack up against your peers. The best part? It does this while also offering the ability to win-back past purchases by playing mini games like flappy bird or blackjack. It’s like if Rocket Money, Robinhood, and your favorite gaming app had a baby.

The Coverd credit card (anticipated to launch by the end of Q2) is the first to ever offer up to 100% cash back on every purchase. Users of the Coverd Card will be able to play in-app games using their points.

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HEADLINES

Markets Rundown

Market Update

Stocks pushed to fresh record highs, extending April’s powerful rally
Tech continued to lead, lifting the Nasdaq ahead of the broader market
Oil pulled back on renewed peace talk optimism, though still elevated above $100
Bond yields held steady, signaling no major shift in rate expectations
The dollar continued to weaken, reversing its safe-haven surge from March

Geopolitics: Progress, But Not Resolution

A ceasefire remains in place, but lasting peace still feels out of reach
New proposals are circulating, yet both sides appear far apart on key terms
Markets are reacting to headlines, but are starting to demand real progress
Oil is the clearest barometer here, still pricing in ongoing supply risk
Without a breakthrough, energy volatility could quickly return

Macro Backdrop: Quietly Resilient

The economy continues to absorb higher energy prices better than expected
Earnings have come in strong, reinforcing the fundamental case for equities
Labor market data next week becomes key for confirming economic durability
Sentiment data will help answer whether confidence is catching up to markets
So far, the story is simple: growth is bending, not breaking

What’s Driving This Market

The rally is no longer just relief, it is being validated by earnings strength
Investors are increasingly betting on normalization, not escalation
Markets are looking past near-term noise and anchoring on forward earnings power
Oil remains the swing factor, but its influence is being absorbed, not amplified

Movers & Shakers

(+) Atlassian ($TEAM) +30% after beating Q3 estimates and raising its full-year revenue growth outlook.
(+) Reddit ($RDDT) +13% because Q1 results crushed expectations on advertising revenue growth; thanks to AI-powered lower-funnel ad products.
(–) Spirit Airlines ($FLYYQ) -25% after the airline's $500M emergency rescue package collapsed.

Prediction Markets

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Private Dealmaking

Iterative Health, a clinical trial infrastructure startup, raised $77 million
KymaThera, a precision therapeutics startup, is raising $75 million
Fun, a payments platform, raised $72 million
Manifest OS raised $60 million
OpenLight, a silicon photonics startup, raised $50 million
Versana, a loan market infrastructure company, raised $43 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

HEARD ON THE STREET

Which Bulge Bracket has the Best Culture?

Now you can find out. We just rolled out culture league tables on Wall Street 360, the first time the Street has ranked firms head-to-head on culture, not just comp.

Filter by:

Bulge Brackets
Elite Boutiques
Middle Market
Private Equity
Country, city, or industry

The results are eye-opening. Some firms with the loudest reputations rank middle of the pack. Others you wouldn't expect are quietly outperforming. And a few elite boutiques are putting some bulge brackets to shame.

See where your firm stacks up.

BOOK OF THE DAY

The Law of the Sublime

Description:
A philosophical and strategic exploration from Robert Greene on how to transcend the ordinary and operate at a higher level of mastery, creativity, and influence. The book examines what separates those who achieve true greatness from those who remain average, focusing on discipline, self-awareness, and the pursuit of something larger than immediate success. It blends historical examples with modern insight to create a framework for elevating both thinking and execution.

Book Length: 320 pages
Release Date: November 10, 2026

Ideal For:
Ambitious individuals looking to break out of mediocrity, think more expansively, and pursue mastery, influence, and long-term greatness.

Greatness is not achieved by following the path it is found by rising above it.

DAILY VISUAL

Cheaper Booking Created More Demand for Humans

Source: Apollo

PRESENTED BY BLUEFLAME AI

Wall Street’s New Assistant Doesn’t Sleep

For years, breaking into banking meant earning your stripes in PowerPoint. That trade is dying.

Purpose-built AI is quietly reshaping the deal lifecycle. No, your favorite AI alone won’t cut it. Foundation models are table stakes. The real edge is software that automates the 80% every firm does the same way (memos, decks, CIMs) so teams can spend real time on the 20% that actually wins mandates: judgment, relationships, pattern recognition.

For juniors, this means less formatting and more deal reps. For MDs? A Bloomberg-style view of the pipeline instead of prompt babysitting.

Learn more about how Blueflame AI is doing this for Wall Street’s top firms.

DAILY ACUMEN

Honest Mirror

There is a specific kind of friend who will tell you the truth even when it costs them your approval, and most people have either one of these or none. The shortage is not random.

Honest feedback is socially expensive to deliver, often unwelcome to receive, and almost never produces an immediate thank you. So most relationships quietly settle into a comfortable arrangement where neither person says the hard thing, and both pretend not to notice.

The cost of this arrangement is invisible until it isn't. By the time the consequences arrive, you have usually been operating with bad information for years, surrounded by people who watched you head in the wrong direction without ever quite saying so.

If everyone around you only tells you what you want to hear, the problem is not them. It is the environment you have built.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

How to improve your grip strength
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Why the next decade of private equity could be in the lower middle market
10 key differences between the working class vs. the self-made wealthy
The must-have item in Silicon Valley is a $178 sweater

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

📣 Partner With Us: Get in front of an audience of over 1 million finance professionals, business leaders, and policy influencers. Submit a partnership inquiry.

📊 Wall Street Comp & Culture Data: Get the most detailed comp, carry, and culture insights across 800+ Wall Street firms. Explore the data.

📈 Grow With Us: Work directly with the Overheard on Wall Street team to scale your finance brand. Schedule your free consult.

🧢 Wall Street Shop: Explore our collection of finance-themed apparel and merchandise. Visit the shop.

📬 Deals Newsletter – Buysiders: A curated roundup of major M&A, private equity, and VC activity. Plus access to private deal flow. Subscribe here.

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