The $15M Military Grants to Build the Solution to Privacy - "You are the Product" | Quant Yoon Auh & Ivan Patriki

The $15M Military Grants to Build the Solution to Privacy - "You are the Product" | Quant Yoon Auh & Ivan Patriki

From On The Margin by On The Margin

June 23, 2026 · 2h 9m

About this episode

Yoon Auh discusses the intersection of quant trading, privacy, and the challenges posed by Big Tech's business model.

Yoon Auh spent a decade building trading systems before landing on the program trading desk at Credit Suisse, becoming head trader, then VP at Goldman Sachs, then head trader at Magnetar Capital — where he accidentally invented what became an entire sub-industry on Wall Street. Then he walked away from institutional finance to solve a problem nobody else would touch: your data is Big Tech's product, and they'll never change that. He spent three years and his own money building the answer. Now he holds 14 patents.In this episode, Yoon breaks down the mechanics of quant trading that textbooks skip, the dirty truth about government grants and military contracts, and why Signal, ProtonMail, and every other privacy app is solving the wrong problem.We cover:College grad → Credit Suisse → Goldman VP → Magnetar: the real pathIndex arbitrage, basket trading, and what institutional execution actually looks likeWhy quant models blow up in small caps (the bid-ask spread they never mention)Soft dollars: the hidden Wall Street system that funds research analystsWhy the biggest money is never in trading — it's in buildingFinfluencer scams then and now: the fax machine fraud that moved to the…

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