JEFF YASS

Born in 1957 in Queens, New York. Studied mathematics at SUNY Binghamton.

Became an obsessive poker player — he credits poker, not finance classes, for teaching him about probability, risk management, and expected value.

Co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in 1987 with four partners. They started as options market makers on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

The thesis: options were frequently mispriced, and a numbers-driven approach could profit from the inefficiency.

SIG grew into one of the largest market-making and proprietary trading firms in the world. They now trade options on virtually every exchange globally and are one of the largest ETF traders.

The firm reportedly generates billions in annual revenue.

Susquehanna International Group is the empire. It's one of the largest non-bank financial firms in the world.

SIG makes markets in options, ETFs, and equities. They're a massive participant in global markets — handling an estimated 10% of all U.S.

listed options volume.

The ByteDance stake is the headline investment. SIG invested in ByteDance (TikTok's parent company) in 2012 through its venture arm.

That stake is now worth an estimated $20-30 billion, making SIG the largest non-Chinese investor in the company. The TikTok ban debate in Congress directly affects Yass's net worth.

SIG also runs a venture capital arm that has invested in numerous tech companies. And Yass personally funds the Cato Institute, Students for Liberty, and Club for Growth through massive political donations.

Yass trades like a poker player. Every decision is about expected value — the probability-weighted average of all possible outcomes.

If the expected value is positive, take the bet. If it's negative, fold.

Size your bets proportionally to your edge.

SIG's approach is purely quantitative. They build mathematical models to identify mispriced options, then trade at massive volume to capture small edges millions of times.

It's the opposite of stock picking — it's statistical arbitrage applied to derivatives.

He trains all SIG employees in poker and game theory before they touch a trading terminal. New hires spend weeks playing poker to learn probabilistic thinking.

ByteDance. SIG invested in the then-unknown Chinese tech company in 2012, long before TikTok existed.

When TikTok became the most downloaded app in the world, SIG's early stake became worth tens of billions. It's one of the most profitable venture investments in history — entirely by accident of being early into Chinese tech.

The political exposure from TikTok. As the largest American investor in ByteDance, Yass became a lightning rod during the Congressional TikTok ban debates.

His political donations — over $100 million to Republican and libertarian causes — were scrutinized in the context of his financial interest in keeping TikTok alive. The intersection of his political spending and financial interests created a narrative he couldn't control.

Yass believes markets are a game of expected value. Every price is a probability.

Every trade is a bet. The only question is whether the odds are in your favor.

This poker-derived philosophy extends to everything SIG does.

He's a committed libertarian who believes government interference in markets destroys value. His political donations reflect this — he funds organizations that advocate for free markets, school choice, and limited government.

On trading: the edge isn't in being smart. It's in being disciplined about expected value and ruthlessly cutting positions that don't work.

Very private. Married to Janine Yass.

They have children. He has funded education causes in Philadelphia, particularly school choice programs.

Almost nothing else is publicly known about his personal life.

Grew up in Queens, New York. Attended SUNY Binghamton, studying mathematics.

No MBA, no PhD. He learned finance through poker and market-making, not through academic credentials.

His real education was at the poker table.

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