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An anatomy of the Jane Street jolt

Ever since the American quant Jane Street Capital was asked by SEBI, the Indian securities regulator, to disgorge its illegal gains of Rs 4,843 crore ($570m), there has been one poser uppermost in the minds of many. What did Jane Street do and how did the quant do what it is alleged to have done? Avoid the temptation to dismiss the question as purely academic. Just start finding answers. More so…

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Strategies to stay safe even in Jane Street-like turmoil

Owning a hedge fund is not a big deal. Get hold of some ace infotech men, use their algos, begin sifting through piles of fin data and fundamental sets of figures. You have arrived as a duly designated quant. Begin swearing by those algos, computer codes and programs. You are all set to process now heaps of data enviably fast. Your algos give you the speed, that speed gives you the strength and…

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Games storied quant traders play

America’s Jane Street Capital has many superlatives to its credit. It is the most secretive quant trading firm in the United States. That may be disputable, nevertheless. On July 3, Jane Street earned yet another distinction of being asked by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, aka SEBI, the Indian markets regulator, to spew out illegal gains of a record Rs 4,843 crore ($ 570m). Jane…

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Trump’s about-turn brings Ukraine anguish and not relief

By now, it is all too familiar. For Ukraine, long used to Donald Trump’s sharp about-turns, even his most serious soothing declarations bring anguish and not relief. It was no different on July 7th when the American president reversed his earlier order stopping all weapon shipments to Ukraine. Worse, the reversal has come in the same month. For Trump-adoring Republicans, such U-turns may be…

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Lost Labour: why Starmer is finishing in the footnotes

Just a year ago, Sir Keir Starmer stormed so successfully into 10 Downing Street. In a historic homecoming, the British Labour Party had power in its grab after nearly 15 years. What should be now a moment for celebration is fast turning into a disastrous date with despair. The sour sight of Sir Keir sinking into shady footnotes of British politics is too much of an anti-climax for Britons. An…

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The 12-day Iran-Israel war confuses China

The only predictable thing about Donald Trump is his chronic unpredictability. His readiness to strike Iran and its key nuclear facilities on June 21st has clear messages to most expansionist regimes. However, these American attacks on Iran are sending confusing signals to China and throwing its Taiwan arithmetic in a tizzy. More so because Mr Trump’s preparedness to get tangled in a distant war…

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The 12-day war that no one lost

The three could be formidable foes in any war. Even in a truce, they are trying to be one up on each other by claiming to have won the 12-day Iran-Israel war. So much so that America, Israel and Iran are saying and doing things to the effect that victory has been theirs. The war did not go regional. In that sense, it is a win for all the three. Iran’s revenge attacks killed not a single American…

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Israel is desperate to get America in. Why?

Israel has never been so desperate. As American president Donald Trump says he will take two weeks to decide on US intervention in Iran, Israel’s desperation is fast getting dreadful. For many reasons. Iran still has a large pile of unfired missiles in its arsenal. So far, Iran has used just a little less than 20% of its stock. The unfired heap is still decent enough to deter Israel, which will…

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Escalating war exacerbates the Middle East’s mess

The Middle East’s tragedy is that its fate will be decided by a whimsical politician. Donald Trump, president of the United States, is not just whimsical, self-centred too. That makes the war between Iran and Israel so suspense-filled. Where is it going and how will it end are still stuck in the realm of speculation, though the war is getting deadlier and decisive. However, what is sure here is…

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How Trump is recharging Iran’s war batteries

Before there is nothing left. These five fiendish words, delivered with murderous intent, should be an American president’s most threatening ever. Not making an attempt to hide his huge role as Israel’s key agent provocateur, Donald Trump went public soon after Israel’s historic attacks on Iran on June 13th. By then, the world knew who was really behind Israel’s audacious attack. More than…

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Israeli hits on Iran slays key security chiefs

Israel loves to launch surprise attacks on enemies. Thanks to Trumpian backing, Israel hits Iran on June 13th with devastating consequences for the Islamic Republic. The hits were so hard that they have ended up erasing Iran’s entire military chain of command. That is not all. Israel’s real targets were Iran’s nuclear installations and there were some successes here too. The attacks were as…

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Trumpian desperation in California disrobes American forces

Brinkman Donald Trump’s penchant for political provocations needs no proof. Yet he offered one when he sent military troops to quell protesters despite objections from local mandarins. The protests had begun on June 6th in Los Angeles and were against the anti-immigrant actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Even as the troops struggled to contain the protests, the fire was…

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When two cowboys fight in the White House

American politics is rancid. That is already known. Yet the speed of the fallout was freakily stranger than any breakup fiction. The Trump-Musk bromance is all over for now. So dramatic was the split that scribes scrounging for apt adjectives through the whole week couldn’t describe fully the bathos in the breakup. The split was nothing but spectacular. Yet many in the media chose to say it was…

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Hard-up Europe has a hard act to follow

When Ukrainian drones devastated a dozen Russian bombers in a dream-like daredevilry on June 1st, it shook Russia out of many delusions. More than that, the audacious attack delivered half a dozen mega money lessons for Europe, ever-hungry for resources to fend off feared attacks by Russia. These mega money lessons make the Ukrainian drone attack a rich study material for a nervous Europe.…

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Not just Harvard: Trump could do this to other universities

Trumpophobia is the name of the new morbid fear that is gripping American universities. They wail that if it could happen to Harvard, it could happen to them as well. So, the Trump-Harvard fiasco is turning into a harbinger of threat for other American universities. Their fear is not just a figment of feverish fantasy, it is real. More so as the American president Donald Trump is busy weaponising…

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An Indo-Pak war still seems inevitable

Prime-time anchors on Indian television news channels keep asking the same questions to their panellists these days. Does the ceasefire hold? Is it as fragile as we all fear? Is this the lull before an Indo-Pak war? Is a military faceoff between the two nations inevitable? Still smarting under a pre-empted ceasefire declared by American president Donald Trump, India is not at all happy with how…

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The ceasefire that doesn’t cease to exasperate

It is unusual for India to get exasperated by American president Donald Trump’s actions. But it was different this time around. America’s unsolicited intervention is irritating India to no end. Even many Indians are feeling the same way. When Mr Trump claimed on May 10th that he was behind India’s ceasefire with Pakistan, and persisted on repeating that claim all through the week that followed,…