Jane Street is pushing into physical gas trading and might be building a new office
Jane Street has been operating in the commodity derivatives space for decades, but its participation in the physical gas trading market is much more recent. The FT previously noted that the electronic trading firm first entered physical markets in 2023, and has been hiring in London and New York. Now, however, Jane Street seems to be setting up in Texas.
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Kyle Bundy joined Jane Street in Houston working on 'gas origination' (sourcing gas for Jane Street to trade). He worked in origination for a number of commodities firms including TC Energy and Phillips 66. He was most recently head of natural gas origination for PetroChina International, which he only joined in May; he seems to have therefore left after less than five months, but did not respond to a request for comment. His role appears similar to one that the FT highlighted in October; Jane Street said in that listing that its physical gas business is "leveraging [Jane Street's] existing systems in a slightly different way than a typical physical gas shop" and that Jane Street is "committed to building this business at scale and investing for the long term."
Bundy is not the only recent hire in Houston. In April, Jane Street hired Colin Blanch as a trader; he was most recently a senior analyst at Balyasny in Houston and previously worked on natural gas analytics for Saracen Energy. It's not clear whether Jane Street is opening a new office in the city or if it has an existing presence. Jane Street did not respond to a request for comment.
Jane Street does have a sizeable presence elsewhere in Texas. Dallas is home to one of the firm's massive datacentres. In a tour of the Dallas site in May, Jane Street revealed that it had over 4,000 GPUs in that location.
Jane Street's emergence in gas trading comes at an interesting time. Recruiters have told us that competition for top natural gas traders is at "peak level," and that hedge funds have been making a number of expensive hires in the space. The biggest prop trading firm in this area is DRW, but after suffering some losses at the start of the year, many of its most senior gas trading staff have been showing up elsewhere.
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