From Wall Street to the coin industry, BitMax Cao Jing's journey to find alpha
Sobriety and hard work is Cao Jing's attitude towards working in the coin industry. This seriousness has never changed.
February 7, 2020, the eve of the Lantern Festival. Cao Jing, founder of the BitMax exchange, is still very busy. His WeChat account is SeekAlpha. Seek is “seeking,” Alpha is “excess portfolio return,” and it is also the “leader” and “top of the list” in the Greek alphabet. This WeChat name seems to be an abbreviation for Cao Jing: an excellent second-tier market quantitative trading veteran. He has deep insight, courage, and ambition deep into the bone marrow. He is unwilling to be mediocre; he is bound to become a leader.
Often living overseas, Cao Jing is used to continuing to work during all traditional seasons. And the 2020 New Year is particularly special — the motherland and compatriots are struggling with the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic. Currently, he is not only an overseas Chinese deeply attached to his home country, but also the founder and CEO of BitMax, an industry-leading startup. He personally traveled to the US, South Korea, and Singapore to purchase epidemic prevention supplies such as masks and protective clothing, and sent these supplies domestically: some to Wuhan and surrounding disaster areas; some to BitMax's domestic offices to protect the safety of his colleagues.
Two years ago, at this point, Cao Jing switched from the traditional financial industry and founded the BitMax digital asset trading platform. BitMax bucked the trend in the bear market in August 2018, and came out of the ring with a trading model combining “mining+mining”; since then, it has made great strides and successfully stopped mining in September 19; now, on the digital currency exchange circuit, BitMax adheres to the three core values of “efficiency, transparency, and prudence” and the brand positioning of “leading the industry with product innovation”. The operation is smooth, and the system is stable and deeply popular.
“Finance is the lifeblood”, Alpha's launch starts here
Chicago in the 90s had the style of America's largest commercial center and futures market. CBOT, located on La Salle Boulevard, has witnessed the heyday and prosperity of the financial derivatives era. And this is the destination for Cao Jing, who finished her undergraduate studies at the Chinese University of Science and Technology, to further her studies in a foreign country. At the time, Cao Jing was studying for her PhD in computer science at the University of Chicago.
According to regular career development, after receiving her doctorate title, Cao Jing will become a programmer at a technology company in Silicon Valley or the Bay Area and become a step-by-step middle class. However, this “at first glance” life did not bear Cao Jing's ambitions. Chicago's financial environment made him realize that finance is a hematopoietic machine for all walks of life, and every piece of data flowing through the blood can unmistakably reveal every aspect of the industry. If you want to better understand the world, or even influence it, finance is the best medium. Compared to sitting in front of a computer struggling with programs all day, Cao Jing consciously enjoyed the hustle and bustle of shopping malls; and his background as a doctor of computer science naturally promoted him to quantitative trading in the financial industry.
Just like that, Cao Jing has gone through tough times in the US financial market. He first worked as Portfolio Manager (Portfolio Manager) at Knight Capital Group (Knight Capital Group) to research and manage quantitative trading strategies in the US stock market; then moved to the famous Barclays Capital (Barclays Capital) to be responsible for quantitative trading of stocks and index products in the US, European and Asian markets, and was the quantitative investment director of Barclays Bank of London and Barclays Bank of New York; later, Cao Jing left his job and founded his first quantitative company in New York The trading fund, Delpha Capital Management (Delpha Capital Management), with an annualized return of more than 20%, has a good reputation in the industry, and has truly become the alpha of its own fund.
Cao Jing believes that quantitative experience has cultivated his three qualities:
First, don't take chances and use data to speak. The essence of quantitative trading strategies is based on historical data, based on mathematical models, and computer technology is used to select various probabilistic profit events from huge historical data to develop trading strategies. Cao Jing is very respectful of data: “When you're used to everything being decided by data, you won't have any imagination or luck with anything. Facts speak louder than words; pragmatism is the only way to succeed.”
Second, strong psychological tolerance is the key to a decisive victory. Quantitative traders often manage extremely large amounts of money. The increase or decrease in assets caused by market fluctuations within a short period of time can put tremendous pressure on ordinary individuals. Today, “how to stay sane and calm in both good and bad times, and make the right decisions” has become a very important skill for Cao Jing.
Third, make decisions quickly, and hesitation is an obstacle to a decisive victory. “A decision, forward or backward, can go any way, but indecision is often the biggest reason things fail. The opportunity has come, and we must have the courage to decide.”
“It's not just about being an alpha in the industry, but also being an alpha in the industry”
Cao Jing never shied away from her ambitions. In his opinion, although finance is the most influential industry, although his quantitative fund has flourished in the traditional financial industry, it is only a drop in the ocean of the boom in traditional finance; continuing on the current path and looking back on his life in the future, he may just be a pretty good hedge fund manager. Wall Street doesn't have a famous name in history. However, the digital currency industry is different! This industry is on the rise, and it is the perfect combination of computer technology and financial quantification. Cao Jing hopes that in the future, when people look back on the history of digital currency development, Cao Jing will have a strong mark.
Since '17, as a quantitative veteran and computer science doctor, Cao Jing has been exposed to digital currencies, but he was very unsatisfied with the market at the time: the trading system was unstable and crashed as soon as the amount was high; there was no guarantee for the safety of users' assets; there were no custodians; the exchange did everything, and brokerage, asset management, and market makers didn't separate; many institutions, including leading exchanges, decided their strategies through brain shooting, no data support, and no regulatory testing... These are the most basic hidden dangers in the digital currency industry that hardly anyone paid attention to in the digital currency industry. If that's the case, why not make a better exchange yourself? In this emerging field, every problem is a business opportunity; this market space is huge!
Just do what you say, do it without hesitation; once the flag is raised, the crowd will meet. Senior developers from many of the world's top financial institutions, such as Bloomberg, Blackrock Capital, Barclays, and Knights Capital, flocked to him. Since then, a group of highly experienced financial veterans officially started from 0 in February 2018 to build a digital asset trading platform that rivals traditional Wall Street financial institutions.
In the first half of 2018, the mining model took off, and Cao Jing led the BitMax Exchange to exclusively pioneer the “mining+filling” transaction model in the entire industry. On the first day of starting mining, it brought in 1.4 billion US dollars in trading volume. What's even more commendable is that the BitMax trading system has been rock-solid under a sudden surge in traffic, and the Wall Street veteran system has withstood the test of the coin community. Since then, for quite some time, BitMax has been ranked number one in the world in the trading volume ranking of the traffic rating website CoinMarketCap, and has become a prominent star among 100 exchanges.
After a year of development and operation, BitMax announced the cessation of mining in September 2019, fully focusing on customer operations and product development. “To become a true leader in the industry, BitMax has to remove its mining exchange cap. On the one hand, our normal trading volume is fully sufficient to support the operation and profit of the exchange. Removing the mining hat, we can actually fight with industry leaders; on the other hand, judging from historical empirical data, mining strategies are not a protracted battle; optimizing products, refined operations, and derivatives tracks is the next trend I see.” Since then, BitMax has strengthened its position of “leading the industry with product innovation” and has also become the first exchange to successfully transform.
“Always be sober and work hard at everything”: On Alpha's protracted battle
Sobriety and hard work is Cao Jing's attitude towards working in the coin industry. This seriousness has never changed.
In the coin industry, which uses market news and benefit sharing as a social link, the community is just what the coin community needs. In the community, news goes hand in hand and has nothing to do with identity and status. Even at the top of the food chain, such as exchanges, they need to rely on the community to maintain user loyalty.
Cao Jing pays great attention to community communication and is named “the number one customer service in the coin industry” by users. The community is full of people from different industries, different ages, different occupations, different personalities, and different ideas. Getting along with them, Cao Jing felt it was a compulsory course to understand the market. “To understand how the market works, you need to understand what the players in the market think and think; to understand people, you must communicate.”
Now that everything is on track, Cao Jing has begun to consciously spend less time watching the community in person. As the CEO of the exchange, he felt it was time to entrust it to his growing, mature and trustworthy colleagues. But he stressed that this does not mean that community voices are being ignored. In his opinion, the current development of the coin industry is “too fast”, to the point where many entrepreneurs simply follow suit, get disoriented, and lose their original intention to start a business. Cao Jing believes that an exchange is a very simple place to meet all the trading needs of users, and all functions are derived from “trading,” including all kinds of financial derivatives and fixed yield products, without exception — so sticking to the original intention is paving the way for the future, which is also the best explanation for the community.
A “clever ghost” without an independent worldview is not a good “overbearing president”
At BitMax, George has an absolute say. This is not because he is the boss, but because of his aggressive style of work and surprisingly good business.
Bella, the head of marketing communications at BitMax, has been familiar with Cao Jing since 2017. Speaking of “Lao Cao,” Bella really admires it. Sometimes things are at an impasse, and when everyone is at a standstill, Lao Cao will be the one to clap. “It's a scene that many times everyone doesn't understand. He insisted that everyone carried out the letter with suspicion, and eventually suddenly discovered that his decision was actually right, and I don't know where he got his inspiration. He had predictions and dared to make decisions. Over time, everyone believed it; it was right to follow Lao Cao.” At the same time, Bella also mentioned that before joining BitMax, she had several jobs before and after, and considered herself to know quite a few people. “Compared to entrepreneurs with a general technical background who only delve into technology or are proficient in a certain field, Lao Cao is clearly a person with his own 'worldview structure'. He is a fast learner and can quickly understand all aspects of an industry. Because such a leader has a hill in his heart, he is more relaxed and progresses faster in the process of starting a business.”
And in the words of Liu Han, a founding core development engineer with a technical background, “Smart means at least being able to talk and speak effortlessly. Every time we communicate at work, whether technical or financial logic, Cao Jing can quickly understand our points and ask new questions and new perspectives.” Coincidentally, senior businessman Bonna felt the same way: “Lao Cao is a very structured and logical person, and thinking about problems and products needs to be reasonable, well-founded and planned.”
In pursuit of Alpha, the journey never stops
The cause is unfinished, and the journey is still halfway; the ambition is strong, and the hero is content. Cao Jing is deeply optimistic about the digital currency industry and is confident about herself and the future development of BitMax in this industry.
“If you compare the path of entrepreneurship to a racing track, BitMax has stabilized its foothold in the first year, formed a certain leading edge, and completed the goals of the first stage; in the second stage, efforts will be made to refine product and user operations to compete with other leading exchanges. I'm also waiting for regulations to be liberalized — at that time, the real exchange arena had just begun; and at that time, BitMax, founded by our group of Wall Street veterans, will take another leap forward!”
Source: Blockchain Watch
