Jane Street Group LLC and Citadel Securities are on a tear. First-half revenue at the two predominantly electronic market makers grew about 80% compared with the first six months of 2023, according to Bloomberg News. That’s enough to make traditional Wall Street executives green with envy — but these upstarts aren’t going to completely devour the old guards’ lunch.
The biggest investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have spent years cultivating more complex, higher-margin trading and lending activities that these newer market makers don’t touch. And unless their business models change, they probably never will.