This Ex-Quant Had to Quit Wall Street to Build a 24/7 Stock Exchange | QFEX, Annanay Kapila

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 21, 2026

Duration

11m

Channel

EO Studio

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Annanay Kapila ran trading strategies that moved $10 billion a day, roughly the GDP of France. He walked away from it all to build QFEX, the 24/7 global stock exchange he always wished existed. In this interview, Annanay opens up about:

1. Why high-frequency trading "adds no value to the world," and how firms quietly extract billions through structural flaws like scheduled futures expiry
2. The "golden handcuffs" that keep Cambridge mathematicians and Math Olympiad medalists trapped in finance
3. How FTX's product innovation (not its fraud) pushed him to rebuild traditional exchanges from scratch
4. The disaster during YC's internal launch that made him question whether a 24/7 exchange was even possible
5. Why Silicon Valley investors think about money completely differently from London and New York

Watch to see how a Cambridge mathematician left a career designed to make him rich in order to build something he can one day tell his kids about. 00:00 Intro 01:07 Money is Killing the Best Talent on This Planet 01:50 How HFT Really Makes Money 03:14 The Golden Handcuffs of Big Paychecks 04:09 But You Need Money to Chase What Matters 05:10 Leaving a Top Hedge Fund Job 06:10 Build Something Worth Telling Your Grandkids 07:10 The Exchange Launch That Almost Broke Us 08:30 Raising at a $95M Pre-Revenue Valuation 09:10 Silicon Valley vs London: A Different Money Mindset 09:49 What's Actually Broken in Traditional Markets 10:45 Advice to Young People in High-Paying Jobs 🔗 Read the full transcription of Annanay’s interview: https://www.eomag.io/article/qfex-annanay-kapila?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description #YCombinator #highfrequencytrading #quanttrading EO stands for Entrepreneur& Opportunities. As we're looking to feature more inspiring stories of entrepreneurs all over the world, don't hesitate to contact us at partner@eoeoeo.net Newsletter | https://www.eomag.io/subscribe?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description LinkedIn | @EO STUDIO X | @eostudi0

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Annanay Kapila

  guest

  Former high-frequency trading quant and founder of QFEX, building a 24/7 stock exchange.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of EO Studio, featuring Annanay Kapila, This Ex-Quant Had to Quit Wall Street to Build a 24/7 Stock Exchange | QFEX, Annanay Kapila explores Ex-quant leaves HFT to build a fair 24/7 exchange Kapila argues that high-frequency trading profits largely come from exploiting structural market design flaws rather than creating meaningful societal value.

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