---
author: EO
date: '2026-04-21'
guest: ''
layout: post.njk
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCojK75W-N8
speaker: EO
tags:
  - quant-finance
  - high-frequency-trading
  - fintech
  - stock-exchange
  - market-efficiency
title: 从百亿日交易到重塑市场：前量化交易员的创业之路
summary: 本文讲述了一位前高频交易量化分析师如何从金融市场的巨额利润中抽身，转而投身于构建下一代 24/7 全球证券交易所 QFX 的创业历程。文章深入探讨了量化交易的本质、传统金融基础设施的弊端，以及创始人对市场效率、公平性和个人价值实现的追求。通过 Y Combinator 的经历和技术挑战，展现了创业的艰辛与创新，最终回归到以构建有意义的“一生事业”为核心的人生哲学。
insight: ''
draft: true
series: ''
category: business-entrepreneurship
area: finance-wealth
project: []
people:
  - Annanay Kapila
companies_orgs:
  - QFX
  - Flow Traders
  - Tower Research Capital
  - Citadel
  - FTX
  - Sequoia
  - Y Combinator
  - CME
products_models:
  - S&P 500 futures
media_books: []
status: evergreen
---
### 从量化交易的巨额利润到对人生价值的追问

我曾作为一名量化交易员，在**高频交易**领域摸爬滚打，处理过日交易额从 100 亿美元到数千亿美元的策略。我负责的策略，日均可产生约 100 亿美元的收益，这相当于法国一年的 GDP。虽然薪资丰厚，我却深感生命的虚度。高频交易的本质在于**利用市场结构性缺陷**，我们赚取的利润，很大程度上源于现有市场设计的“缺陷”而非对世界的贡献。当看到我们因市场固有的结构性设计缺陷而牟利时，我开始质疑这一切的意义。交易员们热衷于此，往往是为了丰厚的奖金，而非追求对社会的积极影响。这种**认知失调**——在获得巨额报酬的同时，却无法证明其对世界有益——成为我内心深处的一个隐患。

<details>
<summary>Original English</summary>

I've
 worked
 as
 a
 quant
 in
 high
 frequency


trading
 $10
 to
 hundred
 billion
 dollars
 a


day
 just
 you
 know
 the
 strategies
 that
 I


was
 responsible
 for
 $10
 billion
 a
 day
 is


roughly
 the
 GDP
 of
 France
 I
 was
 earning


big
 fat
 paychecks
 as
 well
 but
 I
 felt


that
 I
 was
 wasting
 my
 life
 high


frequency
 trading
 is
 all
 about


exploiting
 market
 inefficiencies
 I
 saw


how
 much
 money
 we
 were
 making
 due
 to


simple
 structural
 design
 flaws
 in


existing
 markets
 people
 in
 trading
 just


want
 to
 make
 money
 so
 they
 can
 earn
 big


bonuses
 right
 I'm
 an
 founder
 and
 CEO
 of


QFX
 I
 used
 to
 work
 in
 the
 quan
 finance


sector
 before
 I
 realized
 a
 lot
 of


financial
 markets
 infrastructure
 is


broken
 and
 now
 we're
 building
 the
 next


24/7
 global
 stock
 exchange
 which
 is


going
 to
 revolutionize
 trading
 we
 had


two
 major
 funds
 one
 was
 general
 catalyst


one
 was
 next
 venture
 partners
 round


collision
 95
 million
 valuation
 we


weren't
 making
 any
 revenues
 who
 were


pre-revenue
 raised
 95
 million
 valuation


the
 only
 point
 in
 raising
 venture
 money


is
 if
 you
 can
 be
 massive
 right
 like


truly
 massive
 then
 a
 VC
 will
 find
 it


very
 hard
 to
 say
 Uh,


you
 know,
 certainly
 a
 lot
 of
 people
 in


the
 US,
 I
 feel
 a
 lot
 of
 them
 could
 be


kind
 of
 pursuing
 an
 entrepreneurial
 path


because
 their
 future
 is
 so
 set.
 And
 for


me,
 it
 was
 really
 obvious
 to
 see
 given


my
 background.
 You
 know,
 obviously
 I
 was


born
 in
 India
 and
 then
 my
 friends
 came


to
 the
 UK.
 You
 know,
 they
 left
 behind
 a


lot
 in
 India
 to
 kind
 of
 start
 over
 in


the
 UK.


I
 studied
 maths
 at
 university.
 I
 started


thinking
 about
 what
 I
 wanted
 to
 do
 with


my
 life
 towards
 the
 end
 of
 my
 time
 at


Cambridge.
 We
 weren't
 very
 wealthy


growing
 up
 and
 uh
 job
 in
 quantitative


finance,
 quantum
 trading.
 It
 just
 paid
 a


lot
 of
 money.
 I
 had
 an
 option
 to
 do
 a


PhD
 as
 well,
 something
 more
 impactful,


but
 like
 the
 money
 was
 too
 good
 to
 pass


up.
 And
 after
 I
 left
 Cambridge
 2020,
 I


worked
 at
 a
 Dutch
 high
 frequency
 trading


firm
 called
 Flow
 Traders
 for
 a
 year
 and


then
 I
 got
 headunted
 to
 an
 American
 firm


called
 Tower
 Research
 Capital
 where
 I


worked
 for
 almost
 3
 years.
 When
 you
 work


as
 a
 trader
 as
 a
 quant,
 first
 thing
 I
 do


when
 I
 get
 in,
 you
 know,
 not
 even
 when
 I


get
 in,
 when
 I
 wake
 up,
 I
 have
 my
 work


laptop.
 I
 check
 how
 much
 money
 we've


made.
 In
 quan,
 everything
 is
 data
 driven


and
 you're
 not
 doing
 trading
 by
 talking


to
 people.
 You're
 just
 looking
 at
 data


and
 you're
 trading
 from
 data.
 People
 ask


me
 for
 like
 a
 real
 world
 analogy.
 I


often
 say
 it's
 like
 running
 a
 car


dealership.
 Somebody
 runs
 a
 car


dealership.
 You
 can
 sell
 your
 car
 to


them.
 You
 can
 buy
 a
 car
 from
 them
 and


their
 job
 is
 basically
 to
 kind
 of
 have


an
 inventory
 of
 cars
 ready
 to
 sell.
 And


they
 buy
 cars
 at
 a
 little
 slightly
 lower


price
 and
 sell
 cars
 at
 a
 slightly
 higher


price.
 And
 the
 reason
 Quant
 Finance
 is


able
 to
 make
 so
 much
 money
 is
 because
 so


much
 volume
 trades
 in
 the
 markets.
 You


know,
 the
 S&P
 500
 future
 on
 CME,
 that's


one
 future,
 one
 product,
 trades
 $500


billion
 a
 day.
 That's
 like
 more
 than
 the


GDP
 of
 any
 country.
 But
 I
 think
 there's


a
 lot
 of
 cognitive
 dissonance
 amongst


quants
 and
 traders
 that
 they've
 kind
 of


convinced
 themselves
 because
 they're


earning
 big
 fat
 paychecks
 and
 you
 know,


I
 was
 earning
 big
 fat
 paychecks
 as
 well


that
 hey,
 you
 know,
 we're
 making
 a
 lot


of
 money.
 We
 must
 be
 doing
 something


good
 for
 the
 world.
 High
 frequency


trading
 is
 all
 about
 exploiting
 market


inefficiencies
 like
 futures
 that
 expire


for
 example.
 You
 know
 S&P
 futures
 expire


every
 three
 months
 because
 that


coincides
 with
 the
 time
 of
 the
 harvest


for
 certain
 crops
 in
 the
 Midwest.


There's
 no
 need
 for
 them
 to
 expire.
 If


they
 expire,
 what
 happens
 is
 people
 have


to
 sell
 the
 future,
 buy
 the
 next
 one.


They
 pay
 transaction
 costs
 every
 time


they
 trade
 and
 they
 lose
 money
 and
 high


frequency
 traders
 make
 the
 other
 side
 of


the
 money.
 No
 one
 in
 quant
 trading
 wakes


up
 in
 the
 morning
 and
 they
 think,
 "Oh,


how
 do
 I
 make
 the
 markets
 more
 efficient


today?
 How
 do
 I
 lower
 cost
 of
 consumers


every
 day?"
 People
 in
 trading
 just
 want


to
 make
 money
 so
 they
 can
 earn
 big


bonuses
 and
 I
 think
 Tower
 has
 really


really
 high
 quality
 of
 talent.
 So
 you


know
 a
 lot
 of
 my
 colleagues
 were


international
 math
 Olympiad
 medal


winners.
 There's
 this
 entrance
 exam
 in


India
 for
 like
 the
 top
 technical


universities
 called
 it.
 A
 lot
 of them


are
 ranked
 in
 kind
 of
 the
 top
 50
 in


India
 when
 they
 they
 did
 this
 test.


They're
 stuck
 in
 the
 same
 golden


handcuffs.
 You
 know
 they're
 getting
 paid


too
 much
 basically
 and
 they
 don't
 want


to
 leave.
 Quant
 finance
 has
 sequestered


a
 lot
 of
 very
 talented
 people
 in
 an


industry
 that
 basically
 adds
 no
 value
 to


the
 world
 and
 that
 was
 really
 the
 source


of
 the
 guilt.
 I
 felt
 that
 I
 was
 wasting


my
 life.
 Think
 carefully
 why
 you're


doing
 it.
 Think
 about
 honestly
 is
 is


this
 what
 you
 want
 to
 be
 doing
 in
 5
 7


years
 time.
 Almost
 nobody
 I
 spoke
 to


said
 they
 would
 still
 be
 in
 the
 job
 in
 5


years
 time.
 A
 lot
 of
 them
 were
 like
 2
 3


years
 and
 I'll
 go
 do
 something
 else.


Like
 you
 know
 they're
 still
 there.
 So,


are
 they
 still
 there
 because
 they
 want


to
 be
 there
 or
 are
 they
 still
 there


because
 they
 failed
 to
 re-evaluate?


Towards
 the
 end
 of
 my
 time
 at
 tower,
 a


bunch
 of
 things
 happened
 in
 life
 that


kind
 of
 aligned
 that
 made
 me
 think
 that


maybe
 I
 should
 leave
 this
 and
 and
 build


a
 startup.
 FTX
 was
 a
 very
 profitable


business.
 They
 were
 backed
 by
 Sequoia,


very
 high
 valuation.
 I
 don't
 want
 to


defend
 SPF
 and
 say,
 you
 know what,
 he


did
 a
 good
 thing
 or
 the
 end
 justifies


the
 means.
 I
 think
 what
 he
 did
 was


clearly
 wrong.
 He
 does
 deserve
 to
 be
 in


prison.
 But
 I
 think
 on
 the
 innovation


side
 is
 a
 very
 successful
 company.
 A
 lot


of
 the
 product
 that
 they
 made
 was


actually
 really
 good.
 I
 think
 another


really
 interesting
 thing
 is
 that
 FTX
 did


try
 to
 go
 down
 the
 path
 of
 US
 licensing


and
 US
 regulation.
 FTX
 purchased
 an


exchange
 in
 the
 US.
 Interestingly,
 I'd


already
 had
 the
 idea
 to
 do
 this


exchange.
 what
 is
 now
 Q
 effect
 like


about
 6
 months
 before
 I
 have
 like
 a


burning
 desire
 to
 improve
 the
 markets


because
 I've
 worked
 on
 the
 other
 side
 of


the
 markets
 as
 a
 quant
 in
 high
 frequency


trading
 and
 I
 thought
 if
 the
 aim
 really


is
 to
 make
 markets
 more
 efficient
 why


don't
 you
 just
 improve
 the
 nature
 of
 the


market
 and
 improve
 the
 nature
 of
 the


design
 so
 that
 high
 frequency
 trading


firms
 don't
 make
 all
 this
 money
 which


they're
 just
 extracting
 from
 investors


and
 the
 market
 just
 becomes
 fairer
 that


way
 towards
 the
 end
 of
 2024
 early
 2025
 I


kind
 of
 pitched
 this
 idea
 to
 my


co-founder
 one
 my
 best
 friends.
 We've


known
 each
 other
 for
 a
 very
 long
 time.
 I


guess
 like
 since
 we
 were
 18
 pretty
 much.


Josh
 worked
 at
 Citadel,
 but
 on
 the


engineering
 side,
 he
 didn't
 know


anything
 about
 the
 exchange
 side
 of


things,
 right?
 He
 just
 called
 me
 like,


"Hey,
 I
 have
 this
 like
 crazy
 idea."
 I


was
 like,
 you
 know,
 this
 is
 so
 obviously


like
 a
 better
 market
 design
 that
 there


no
 way
 it
 doesn't
 exist
 in
 5
 or
 10
 years


time,
 right?
 And
 either
 the
 incumbents


get
 their
 act
 together
 or
 we
 do
 it.
 He


was
 like,
 "Yeah,
 like
 let's
 let's
 do


it."
 He
 left
 his
 job
 at
 Citadel,
 which


is
 one
 of
 the
 top
 hedge
 funds
 in
 the


world.
 job
 was
 going
 pretty
 well
 and
 I


had
 a
 lot
 of
 money
 saved
 up,
 I
 wouldn't


be
 under
 any
 financial
 pressure.
 Once


that
 side
 of
 the
 equation
 was
 solved
 for


and
 I
 had
 some
 decent
 money
 in
 the
 bank,


then
 I
 thought,
 okay,
 it's
 it's
 time
 to


do
 something
 that,
 you
 know,
 I
 want
 to


make
 my
 life's
 work.
 I
 left
 my
 job
 in


February
 2025.
 You
 know,
 I
 was
 really


getting
 to
 the
 point
 where
 I
 was


thinking,
 hey,
 you
 know,
 can
 anything


really
 go
 wrong
 if
 I
 spend,
 you
 know,
 2


3
 4
 5
 years
 of
 my
 life,
 let's
 say,
 and


and
 things
 don't don't
 really
 work
 out.


You
 know,
 we
 applied
 for
 funding
 from
 Y


Combinator.
 We
 applied.
 You
 know,
 Josh


calls
 me
 and
 I'm
 like
 in
 Austria


watching
 some
 opera
 show.
 He's
 like,


"Oh,
 we
 got
 an
 interview.
 We
 got
 an


interview.
 We
 have
 to
 come."
 I
 flew
 the


same
 day
 back
 to
 London.
 They
 ask


questions
 that
 really
 test
 whether


you've
 got
 into
 the
 details
 of


understanding
 where
 the
 problem
 lies
 and


what
 the
 why
 now
 moment
 is
 like
 why
 is


now
 the
 right
 time
 to
 build
 this
 idea.


PG
 explain
 this
 to
 us.
 They
 don't
 think


about
 things
 like
 what's
 the
 probability


of
 this
 idea
 succeeding.
 They
 just
 want


to
 know
 the
 probability
 is
 bigger
 than


zero.
 Even
 if
 it's
 1%,
 but
 it's
 a
 huge


idea
 and
 you're
 a
 good
 team,
 they'll


fund
 you.
 I'm
 aware
 that
 the
 company


we're
 doing
 right
 now,
 right,
 it's


either
 going
 to
 make
 me
 like
 $50
 million


or
 zero
 cuz
 like
 exchange
 is
 like
 it's


not
 like
 a
 10
 mill
 business.
 Like
 it'


never
 be
 a
 10
 million
 business.
 It's


either
 zero
 or
 huge.
 And
 they
 said,
 "Is


this
 a
 huge
 idea?"
 And
 these
 guys
 the


right
 people
 to
 do
 it.
 The
 next
 day
 uh


we
 got
 the
 offer
 and
 then
 we
 like
 okay


and
 now
 that
 we
 have
 funding
 we
 can


probably
 build
 it.
 But
 building
 in


fintech
 is
 always
 tough
 because
 you


can't
 launch
 something
 and
 if
 it
 breaks


sorry
 to
 your
 customers,
 right?
 That's


like
 a
 real
 breach
 of
 trust.
 The
 hardest


day,
 it
 was
 during
 YC
 actually.
 We'd


actually
 launched
 the
 exchange


internally
 just
 to
 YC.
 We
 were
 kind
 of


forced
 by
 our
 partners
 to
 launch
 early


cuz
 they
 were
 like,
 "You
 need
 to
 do
 this


otherwise
 you'll
 never
 get
 user


feedback.
 Just
 just
 do
 it
 right
 right


now."
 I
 like
 very
 jetlagged.
 So,
 I
 work


with
 3:00
 a.m.
 My
 co-founder
 was
 there


and
 he's
 like,
 "Oh
 man,
 the
 exchange
 has


blown
 up."
 We
 looked
 at
 everyone's


result
 like
 somebody
 was
 plus
 $1


million,
 somebody
 was
 -
 $1
 million.
 We


like,
 "Oh
 man,
 we
 only
 gave
 them
 like


$100
 to
 play
 with.
 Like,
 how
 has
 this


happened?"
 So
 we
 had
 to
 basically
 spend


all
 day
 reconstructing
 what
 had


happened,
 figuring
 out
 how
 much
 money


everyone
 owed
 and
 how
 much
 they
 didn't


owe,
 reimbursing
 some
 people.
 That
 was


the
 first
 time
 we
 took
 a
 loss
 as
 a


company.
 We we
 had
 to
 say,
 "Oh,
 we're


sorry.
 It
 says
 that
 you're
 minus
 $100,


but
 we
 don't
 think
 this
 is
 right.
 We'll


just
 give
 you
 $100."
 Luckily,
 it
 was


still
 small
 scale.
 It
 wasn't
 like
 a
 big


loss
 for
 us.
 The
 issue
 was
 it
 really
 hit


home
 how
 difficult
 it
 is
 to
 build
 a
 24/7


perfect
 fully
 available
 system
 that


keeps
 track
 of
 if
 you
 run
 something


24/7,
 like
 anything
 can
 go
 wrong


anytime,
 right?
 lightning
 bolt
 can


happen,
 fire
 in
 the
 data
 center,


whatever.
 We
 didn't
 sleep
 properly
 for


days
 after
 that
 cuz
 we
 were
 like,
 we


don't
 want
 this
 to
 happen
 in
 life,


right?
 Cuz
 if
 we
 do,
 it's
 game
 over
 for


us
 in
 exchange.
 I
 think
 the
 reason
 the


partners
 made
 us
 do
 it
 is
 to
 make


basically
 make
 us
 grow
 up
 and
 realize


the
 gravity
 of
 the
 situation
 we
 were
 in.


That
 was
 a
 really
 tough
 time.
 Both
 the


best
 days
 of
 our
 life
 and
 the
 worst
 days


of
 our
 life.
 We
 were
 working
 all
 the


time,
 like
 100
 hours
 a
 week,
 very


focused,
 uh
 very
 frenetic.


You
 know,
 there's
 some
 misconceptions


maybe
 about
 how
 fundraising
 happens
 in


Silicon
 Valley.
 It's
 very
 quick.
 If
 the


check
 size
 is
 less
 than
 500K,
 typically


it's
 a
 30-minute
 meeting
 and
 you
 get
 the


decision
 like
 on
 the
 call
 or
 just
 after.


If
 it's
 kind
 of a
 bigger
 check,
 then
 we


had
 a
 first
 meeting
 and
 then
 a
 second


meeting
 in
 person
 which
 was,
 you
 know,


both
 for
 30
 minutes,
 let's
 say
 roughly.


And
 day
 one,
 we
 had
 a
 bunch
 of
 angels.


We
 got
 some
 money
 and
 then
 we
 stopped


taking
 angel
 money.
 Yeah.
 Then
 it
 was


about
 the
 bigger
 funds.
 So,
 you
 know,
 we


had
 two
 major
 funds.
 One
 was
 General


Capitalist,
 one
 was
 next
 suspension


partners
 round
 95
 million
 valuation.
 We


weren't
 making
 any
 revenues.
 We
 were


pre-revenue.
 The
 only
 point
 in
 raising


venture
 money
 is
 if
 you
 can
 be
 massive,


but
 you
 have
 to
 be
 at
 like
 the
 huge


scale,
 then
 a
 VC
 will
 find
 it
 very
 hard


to
 say
 no.
 And
 I
 think
 you
 guys
 are


based
 in
 San
 Francisco.
 What's
 very


interesting
 for
 me
 kind
 of being
 in


London
 for
 a
 while,
 now
 we're
 in
 New


York.
 I
 think
 London,
 New
 York,
 people


are
 very
 concerned
 with
 how
 much
 money


someone
 has,
 how
 much
 money
 they
 make,


how
 much
 money
 they
 have
 in
 their
 bank


account,
 how
 much
 money
 they're
 going
 to


make
 in
 the
 future.
 Everything's
 about


money.
 San
 Francisco,
 people
 really,
 I


think,
 don't
 talk
 about
 that
 as
 much
 or


don't
 think
 about
 it
 as
 much.
 They're


much
 more
 concerned
 with,
 you
 know,


impact,
 that
 kind
 of
 thing.
 And
 it
 was


really
 useful
 to
 live
 in
 San
 Francisco


for
 like
 4
 months.
 HFT
 strategies
 don't


lose
 money,
 right?
 Like
 you
 can't
 even


lose
 money
 doing
 HFT.
 If
 you
 lose
 money


on
 a
 particular
 day,
 you
 get
 like
 an


email
 from
 your
 boss
 like
 what
 what
 the


hell
 happened.
 Silicon
 Valley
 approach


is
 like,
 you
 know,
 let's
 try
 and
 make


something
 that's
 going
 to
 make
 a
 billion


dollars
 in
 5
 years
 time,
 but
 don't
 even


think
 about
 the
 money,
 right?
 It's
 like


not
 even
 on
 the
 scale,
 which
 is
 like
 a


new
 way
 of
 thinking.
 That
 was
 a
 nice


part
 of
 being
 in
 San
 Francisco.
 You
 what


we
 wanted
 to
 do
 is
 make
 sure
 everyone


trades
 on
 the
 same
 equal
 playing
 field,


level
 terms.
 If
 you
 want
 to
 buy
 Tesla,


Treasure
 trades
 on
 NASDAQ
 exchange,
 but


the
 interface
 is
 through
 Robin
 Hood
 and


there's
 another
 intermediary
 which
 is


called
 a
 clearing
 house
 which
 basically


does
 the
 risk
 management
 and
 settlement,


right?
 It's
 that
 intermediation,
 three


separate
 companies
 involved
 in
 doing
 one


trade
 that
 should
 really
 just
 be
 done
 by


one
 company
 that's
 as
 most
 efficient
 as


possible.
 That's
 really
 what
 we're


offering
 on
 QX.
 Our
 pricing
 is


completely
 transparent,
 right?
 So,
 we


don't
 make
 money
 from
 this
 like
 profit


share
 agreement.
 We
 just
 make
 money
 from


fees.
 Our
 fees
 are
 as
 low
 as
 possible.


We
 actually
 give
 a
 lot
 of
 our
 fees
 back


to
 users
 if
 you
 kind
 of
 refer
 your


friends
 or
 whatever.
 It's
 similar
 to


Stripe
 if
 you
 want
 like
 a
 direct


comparison.
 Stripe
 really
 reduced
 the


frictions
 when
 it
 comes
 to
 doing


payments.
 We're
 reducing
 the
 frictions


when
 it
 comes
 to
 trading.
 And
 so
 much


money
 trades
 through
 financial
 markets


and
 days
 in
 ways
 that
 people
 don't
 even


understand
 that
 even
 if
 you
 make
 small


improvements,
 they
 have
 massive


downstream
 impact.
 I
 think
 the
 best


founders
 always
 have
 that,
 you
 know,


that
 the
 company
 they're
 working
 on
 is


their
 life's
 work,
 right?
 Like
 they
 want


it
 to
 be
 their
 legacy.
 It's
 more
 than


just
 money
 for
 them.
 And
 I
 was
 ready
 to


reach
 that
 stage
 where
 I
 was
 no
 longer


just
 thinking
 about
 the
 money.
 You
 know,


there's
 an
 element
 of
 me
 that's
 you


doing
 the
 current
 company
 for
 the
 money,


but
 there's
 also
 an
 element
 of,
 you


know,
 we
 want
 to
 go
 out
 there
 and
 be
 the


change
 in
 the
 world
 that
 we
 want
 to
 see.


And
 here's
 a
 very
 obvious
 change
 that
 I


see
 now
 that
 I
 think
 not
 a
 lot
 of
 other


people
 can
 work
 on.
 Is
 this
 what
 you


want
 to
 tell
 your
 kids
 that
 you
 spent


your
 life
 doing?
 Do
 you
 think
 this
 job


will
 still
 be
 around
 in
 5
 7
 years
 time?


If
 you're
 still
 a
 young
 person,
 you


should
 be
 optimizing
 for
 learning
 and


optimizing
 for
 growth,
 not
 optimizing


for
 how
 much
 money
 you're
 making
 right


now.
</details>

### QFX 的诞生：重塑市场，追求公平

我曾就读于**剑桥大学**，攻读数学专业。毕业后，我选择了一条薪酬丰厚的道路：**量化金融**。在荷兰的**Flow Traders**工作一年后，我被**Tower Research Capital**这家美国公司挖角，在那里度过了近三年时光。作为一名量化交易员，我的日常始于检查工作笔记本，查看当天的盈利情况。量化交易的核心在于**数据驱动**，一切决策都基于数据分析，而非人际沟通。

我开始意识到，金融市场的**基础设施存在严重缺陷**。这促使我萌生了构建一个**24/7 全球证券交易所**的想法，旨在彻底革新交易方式。在遇到我的联合创始人 Josh 之前，我早已构思出类似 **QFX**（即现在的公司名）的交易所概念。Josh 曾任职于顶尖对冲基金 **Citadel** 的工程部门，他看到了我提出的“**更优市场设计**”的可能性。他当时打电话给我，兴奋地表示：“我有一个疯狂的想法。”而我则认为，这是一个必然存在的未来，要么被现有巨头采纳，要么由我们来创造。他毅然辞去了 Citadel 的工作，而我也在 2025 年 2 月辞职，因为我已积累了足够的储蓄，不再面临财务压力，可以全身心地投入到这项“**一生事业**”中。

<details>
<summary>Original English</summary>

I studied maths at university. I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life towards the end of my time at Cambridge. We weren't very wealthy growing up and uh job in quantitative finance, quantum trading. It just paid a lot of money. I had an option to do a PhD as well, something more impactful, but like the money was too good to pass up. And after I left Cambridge 2020, I worked at a Dutch high frequency trading firm called Flow Traders for a year and then I got headunted to an American firm called Tower Research Capital where I worked for almost 3 years. When you work as a trader as a quant, first thing I do when I get in, you know, not even when I get in, when I wake up, I have my work laptop. I check how much money we've made. In quan, everything is data driven and you're not doing trading by talking to people. You're just looking at data and you're trading from data. People ask me for like a real world analogy. I often say it's like running a car dealership. Somebody runs a car dealership. You can sell your car to them. You can buy a car from them and their job is basically to kind of have an inventory of cars ready to sell. And they buy cars at a little slightly lower price and sell cars at a slightly higher price. And the reason Quant Finance is able to make so much money is because so much volume trades in the markets. You know, the S&P 500 future on CME, that's one future, one product, trades $500 billion a day. That's like more than the GDP of any country. But I think there's a lot of cognitive dissonance amongst quants and traders that they've kind of convinced themselves because they're earning big fat paychecks and you know, I was earning big fat paychecks as well that hey, you know, we're making a lot of money. We must be doing something good for the world. High frequency trading is all about exploiting market inefficiencies like futures that expire for example. You know S&P futures expire every three months because that coincides with the time of the harvest for certain crops in the Midwest. There's no need for them to expire. If they expire, what happens is people have to sell the future, buy the next one. They pay transaction costs every time they trade and they lose money and high frequency traders make the other side of the money. No one in quant trading wakes up in the morning and they think, "Oh, how do I make the markets more efficient today? How do I lower cost of consumers every day?" People in trading just want to make money so they can earn big bonuses and I think Tower has really really high quality of talent. So you know a lot of my colleagues were international math Olympiad medal winners. There's this entrance exam in India for like the top technical universities called it. A lot of them are ranked in kind of the top 50 in India when they they did this test. They're stuck in the same golden handcuffs. You know they're getting paid too much basically and they don't want to leave. Quant finance has sequestered a lot of very talented people in an industry that basically adds no value to the world and that was really the source of the guilt. I felt that I was wasting my life. Think carefully why you're doing it. Think about honestly is is this what you want to be doing in 5 7 years time. Almost nobody I spoke to said they would still be in the job in 5 years time. A lot of them were like 2 3 years and I'll go do something else. Like you know they're still there. So, are they still there because they want to be there or are they still there because they failed to re-evaluate? Towards the end of my time at tower, a bunch of things happened in life that kind of aligned that made me think that maybe I should leave this and and build a startup. FTX was a very profitable business. They were backed by Sequoia, very high valuation. I don't want to defend SPF and say, you know what, he did a good thing or the end justifies the means. I think what he did was clearly wrong. He does deserve to be in prison. But I think on the innovation side is a very successful company. A lot of the product that they made was actually really good. I think another really interesting thing is that FTX did try to go down the path of US licensing and US regulation. FTX purchased an exchange in the US. Interestingly, I'd already had the idea to do this exchange. what is now Q effect like about 6 months before I have like a burning desire to improve the markets because I've worked on the other side of the markets as a quant in high frequency trading and I thought if the aim really is to make markets more efficient why don't you just improve the nature of the market and improve the nature of the design so that high frequency trading firms don't make all this money which they're just extracting from investors and the market just becomes fairer that way towards the end of 2024 early 2025 I kind of pitched this idea to my co-founder one my best friends. We've known each other for a very long time. I guess like since we were 18 pretty much. Josh worked at Citadel, but on the engineering side, he didn't know anything about the exchange side of things, right? He just called me like, "Hey, I have this like crazy idea." I was like, you know, this is so obviously like a better market design that there no way it doesn't exist in 5 or 10 years time, right? And either the incumbents get their act together or we do it. He was like, "Yeah, like let's let's do it." He left his job at Citadel, which is one of the top hedge funds in the world. job was going pretty well and I had a lot of money saved up, I wouldn't be under any financial pressure. Once that side of the equation was solved for and I had some decent money in the bank, then I thought, okay, it's it's time to do something that, you know, I want to make my life's work. I left my job in February 2025. You know, I was really getting to the point where I was thinking, hey, you know, can anything really go wrong if I spend, you know, 2 3 4 5 years of my life, let's say, and and things don't don't really work out.
</details>

### 创业征程：融资、文化与韧性

在融资方面，**风险投资 (VC)** 的逻辑是追求**极致规模**。如果一个项目有潜力成为“真正大规模”的企业，VC 就很难拒绝。正如硅谷文化所强调的，创业者更关注**影响力**，而非短期内的金钱收益，这与伦敦和纽约等地更侧重于个人财富的传统金融文化截然不同。我曾花了四个月时间在**圣何塞**生活，深刻体验了这种以“**价值创造**”为驱动的思维模式。

创业并非一帆风顺。在**Y Combinator**的经历中，我们曾被迫提前启动交易所的内部测试，因为合作伙伴认为这是获取用户反馈的必要步骤。在一个凌晨，我刚从**奥地利**的歌剧表演中赶回伦敦，睡眼惺忪地与联合创始人检查系统，却发现交易所“**爆炸**”了——用户盈亏出现了巨大的偏差，有人盈利百万，有人亏损百万，而我们只提供了 100 美元的初始资金。我们花了整整一天时间来**重建交易记录**，弄清楚每个人的盈亏情况，并进行了赔付。这是我们公司**第一次出现亏损**。虽然损失不大，但这次事件让我们深刻认识到构建一个**24/7 全方位可用系统**的严峻挑战，以及任何意外都可能带来的灾难性后果。这次经历让我们意识到，即使是微小的市场改进，也能带来巨大的连锁反应。

<details>
<summary>Original English</summary>

You know, we applied for funding from Y Combinator. We applied. You know, Josh calls me and I'm like in Austria watching some opera show. He's like, "Oh, we got an interview. We got an interview. We have to come." I flew the same day back to London. They ask questions that really test whether you've got into the details of understanding where the problem lies and what the why now moment is like why is now the right time to build this idea. PG explain this to us. They don't think about things like what's the probability of this idea succeeding. They just want to know the probability is bigger than zero. Even if it's 1%, but it's a huge idea and you're a good team, they'll fund you. I'm aware that the company we're doing right now, right, it's either going to make me like $50 million or zero cuz like exchange is like it's not like a 10 mill business. Like it' never be a 10 million business. It's either zero or huge. And they said, "Is this a huge idea?" And these guys the right people to do it. The next day uh we got the offer and then we like okay and now that we have funding we can probably build it. But building in fintech is always tough because you can't launch something and if it breaks sorry to your customers, right? That's like a real breach of trust. The hardest day, it was during YC actually. We'd actually launched the exchange internally just to YC. We were kind of forced by our partners to launch early cuz they were like, "You need to do this otherwise you'll never get user feedback. Just just do it right right now." I like very jetlagged. So, I work with 3:00 a.m. My co-founder was there and he's like, "Oh man, the exchange has blown up." We looked at everyone's result like somebody was plus $1 million, somebody was - $1 million. We like, "Oh man, we only gave them like $100 to play with. Like, how has this happened?" So we had to basically spend all day reconstructing what had happened, figuring out how much money everyone owed and how much they didn't owe, reimbursing some people. That was the first time we took a loss as a company. We we had to say, "Oh, we're sorry. It says that you're minus $100, but we don't think this is right. We'll just give you $100." Luckily, it was still small scale. It wasn't like a big loss for us. The issue was it really hit home how difficult it is to build a 24/7 perfect fully available system that keeps track of if you run something 24/7, like anything can go wrong anytime, right? lightning bolt can happen, fire in the data center, whatever. We didn't sleep properly for days after that cuz we were like, we don't want this to happen in life, right? Cuz if we do, it's game over for us in exchange. I think the reason the partners made us do it is to make basically make us grow up and realize the gravity of the situation we were in. That was a really tough time. Both the best days of our life and the worst days of our life. We were working all the time, like 100 hours a week, very focused, uh very frenetic. You know, there's some misconceptions maybe about how fundraising happens in Silicon Valley. It's very quick. If the check size is less than 500K, typically it's a 30-minute meeting and you get the decision like on the call or just after. If it's kind of a bigger check, then we had a first meeting and then a second meeting in person which was, you know, both for 30 minutes, let's say roughly. And day one, we had a bunch of angels. We got some money and then we stopped taking angel money. Yeah. Then it was about the bigger funds. So, you know, we had two major funds. One was General Capitalist, one was next suspension partners round 95 million valuation. We weren't making any revenues. We were pre-revenue. The only point in raising venture money is if you can be massive, but you have to be at like the huge scale, then a VC will find it very hard to say no. And I think you guys are based in San Francisco. What's very interesting for me kind of being in London for a while, now we're in New York. I think London, New York, people are very concerned with how much money someone has, how much money they make, how much money they have in their bank account, how much money they're going to make in the future. Everything's about money. San Francisco, people really, I think, don't talk about that as much or don't think about it as much. They're much more concerned with, you know, impact, that kind of thing. And it was really useful to live in San Francisco for like 4 months. HFT strategies don't lose money, right? Like you can't even lose money doing HFT. If you lose money on a particular day, you get like an email from your boss like what what the hell happened. Silicon Valley approach is like, you know, let's try and make something that's going to make a billion dollars in 5 years time, but don't even think about the money, right? It's like not even on the scale, which is like a new way of thinking. That was a nice part of being in San Francisco. You what we wanted to do is make sure everyone trades on the same equal playing field, level terms.
</details>

### QFX 的核心价值与“一生事业”的追求

QFX 的核心在于**提升市场效率**，通过**透明的定价**和**极低的交易费用**来吸引用户，并**将部分费用返还给用户**，这与 **Stripe** 在支付领域降低交易摩擦的方式类似。我们旨在构建一个**公平的交易环境**，消除不必要的中间环节。尽管我所做的一切，部分也出于对金钱的考量，但我更希望将其视为一项“**一生事业**”。我不再仅仅追求金钱，而是希望成为世界变革的一部分，解决那些其他创新者可能忽视的明显问题。

正如许多成功的**创始人**那样，他们将创业视为**毕生的事业和传承**，我也有了同样的觉悟。我做 QFX，不仅仅是为了财富，更是为了创造一项能够被铭记的**遗产**。这种心态的转变，意味着我不再仅仅关注眼前的金钱，而是将目光投向更宏大的目标——**成为我们希望在世界上看到的改变**。对于年轻人，我建议他们应该优先考虑**学习和成长**，而不是仅仅优化当前的收入。思考你人生真正想做什么，以及你愿意为之付出多少时间。

<details>
<summary>Original English</summary>

If you want to buy Tesla, Treasure trades on NASDAQ exchange, but the interface is through Robin Hood and there's another intermediary which is called a clearing house which basically does the risk management and settlement, right? It's that intermediation, three separate companies involved in doing one trade that should really just be done by one company that's as most efficient as possible. That's really what we're offering on QX. Our pricing is completely transparent, right? So, we don't make money from this like profit share agreement. We just make money from fees. Our fees are as low as possible. We actually give a lot of our fees back to users if you kind of refer your friends or whatever. It's similar to Stripe if you want like a direct comparison. Stripe really reduced the frictions when it comes to doing payments. We're reducing the frictions when it comes to trading. And so much money trades through financial markets and days in ways that people don't even understand that even if you make small improvements, they have massive downstream impact. I think the best founders always have that, you know, that the company they're working on is their life's work, right? Like they want it to be their legacy. It's more than just money for them. And I was ready to reach that stage where I was no longer just thinking about the money. You know, there's an element of me that's you doing the current company for the money, but there's also an element of, you know, we want to go out there and be the change in the world that we want to see. And here's a very obvious change that I see now that I think not a lot of other people can work on. Is this what you want to tell your kids that you spent your life doing? Do you think this job will still be around in 5 7 years time? If you're still a young person, you should be optimizing for learning and optimizing for growth, not optimizing for how much money you're making right now.
</details>