More Money Than God

“I was fascinated by the action and the possibility I could make money short-term,” he says.

The 2008 financial crisis wasn’t exactly responsible for what was going on, but it had played a role. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley that had once taken the most interesting trading risks had become clunkier and more heavily regulated. They were being shoved into the boring Wall Street role once played by the big commercial

Brokerage and other restrictions place limits on how much a hedge fund can borrow through more traditional loans, but the options gave Medallion the ability to borrow significantly more than it otherwise was allowed to. Competitors generally had about seven dollars of financial instruments for each dollar of cash. By contrast, Medallion’s options s