Founder's Story · 2026-07-01 · 22 min
Daniel and Daniel Schlaepfer dive into the evolution of trading from human-driven Wall Street desks to today’s app-based, AI-assisted, off-exchange market structure. Daniel explains how he accidentally entered the trading world through a free subway newspaper ad after law school didn’t go as planned, then later rebuilt a new firm after the original company collapsed under regulatory failures. The conversation explores why “free trading” is not really free, how retail orders are routed away from public exchanges, why funded trader programs can be dangerous, and why risk systems - not hype - are the reason his firm has had only 12 losing days in over 14 years. Key Discussion Points Daniel shares how he planned to go to law school, did not get into the schools he wanted, and ended up answering a stock trader ad in a free subway newspaper. He explains how the original trading firm he worked for became one of the largest trading firms but eventually collapsed because it grew fast without enforcing rules, supervision, or regulatory discipline.
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