The difference is that these thousands also get to invest in Jane Street, which seems a pretty profitable investment (70% margins, etc).
>20% return is quite easy to justify. You're also looking at a 50%-200% annual bonus, mostly leaning to the higher end of the range.
Its a very different world!
Surely this is a HN culture bubble? Very few people can borrow tens of thousands of dollars from family and friends to lend to a hedge fund. Not only would I be refused, I'd damage friendships by exposing the moral vacuum at my core.
So they're incentivized to allow as many of their employees to invest as possible.
