Editorial Staff

Christina Qi Goes From Welfare to Wall Street 

/in , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Immigrants and refugees are a net economic benefit to host countries like the United States. Research has consistently shown they help create jobs and add an important dynamism to our economy. This is the case even when there is initial investment on behalf of the state, through education, English classes or welfare. Immigrants pay more into the system than they get out.  For Christina Qi, who started a hedge fund at just 22, the welfare she was on in her early years in Utah after moving from China helped stabilize her youth and pave the way for her to attend MIT. She went on to co-found Domeyard, a quantitative trading firm, in 2013, among the longest running high-frequency trading hedge funds in the world, and was trading up to $7 billion dollars a day. In 2019, she founded Databento, an on-demand data platform for asset managers and quantitative analysts. Being an immigrant, Asian and a woman in the cutthroat, male-dominated world of Wall Street didn’t deter her. Nor did she forget those who helped get her to where she is today. As you’ll soon learn in this week’s JobMakers podcast.

Guest

Christina Qi is the CEO of Databento, an on-demand data platform for asset managers and quants. She is also a Founding Partner of Domeyard LP, among the longest running high-frequency trading hedge funds in the world. She started the firm 8 years ago from her dorm room with $1,000 in savings, and it trades up to $7.1 billion per day. Her company’s story has been prominently featured in Forbes and Nikkei, and she has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNN, NBC, and the Financial Times. Christina is a contributor to the World Economic Forum’s research on AI in finance. She is a visiting lecturer at MIT, and teaches Domeyard’s case study at Harvard Business School and other universities. Christina was elected as a Member of the MIT Corporation, MIT’s Board of Trustees, and Co-Chair of the Board of Invest in Girls in 2019. Christina also sits on the Board of Directors of The Financial Executives Alliance (FEA) Hedge Fund Group, drives entrepreneurship efforts at the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association (MIT SBAA), and served on the U.S. Non-Profit Boards Committee of 100 Women in Finance for five years. Her work in finance earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30, where she is now a board member. Christina holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from MIT and is a CAIA Charterholder. She is publishing a book in 2021, The Finance Snake: A Memoir About My Billion Dollar Hedge Fund.

Get new episodes of JobMakers in your inbox!

Browse Pioneer’s Podcasts:

“Call Me Ishmael” Melville Scholar Prof. Hershel Parker on Moby-Dick & Classic Literature

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Gerard and guest co-host Kerry McDonald, senior education fellow with the Foundation for Economic Education, are joined by Hershel Parker, the H. Fletcher Brown professor emeritus at the University of Delaware and the definitive biographer of the 19th-century American novelist, Herman Melville.

Student Loan Collective Bargaining: Leveraging Loan Aggregation for Better Rates

0 Comments
/
Join Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi as he talks with Chris Abkarians and Nikhil Argawal, co-founders of LeverEdge, about how their new student loan platform uses loan aggregation and competition to secure better rates for student loans.

NYT #1 Best-Selling Science Author, Dava Sobel on Copernicus, Galileo’s Daughter, & Astronomy

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, and author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, and Letters to Father. Dava describes what inspired her interest in some of the most gifted mathematicians and astronomers in history, including Copernicus and Galileo, and the tensions between religion and science.

COVID & Classrooms: Lessons for Students, Staff, & Society on Reopening Schools

0 Comments
/
Join host Joe Selvaggi and co-host Rebekah Paxton of Pioneer Institute as they talk with Harvard Medical School Professor Benjamin Sommers on the most current scientific observations regarding the health and safety of reopening schools.

Widow of Civil Rights Icon, Dr. Sephira Shuttlesworth on Desegregating Schools & Racial Equity

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dr. Sephira Shuttlesworth, a retired teacher and charter school leader, and the widow of the late Birmingham, Alabama, civil rights leader, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

WSJ Children’s Book Critic & Author, Meghan Cox Gurdon on Reading Aloud to Children in the Age of Distraction

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Wall Street Journal’s children’s book reviewer and author of The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.

COVID Transmission: A Scientist’s Insight on What Matters

0 Comments
/
Join Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Institute co-host Bill Smith as they talk with Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Ed Nardell about his scientific observations on how the novel coronavirus is spread and what can be done to make our schools, buildings, and lives in public safer.

Boston Uni.’s Dr. Charles Glenn on School Choice, Civil Rights, & Espinoza

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Dr. Charles Glenn, Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Boston University. Dr. Glenn shares his early experiences in the Civil Rights movement, and how it inspired his work to expand school choice, as well as his thoughts on the Espinoza Supreme Court case's impact on racial justice and religious liberty.

Foster Family Fixes: Serving Our Most Vulnerable Children with Foster Care Reform

0 Comments
/
Join Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Senior Healthcare Fellow Josh Archambault as they discuss specific reforms that could improve the current foster care system. Josh shares findings from his recent research, as well as his experiences as a foster parent himself.

Brown Uni.’s Pulitzer-Winning Prof. Gordon Wood on American Independence & the Founding Fathers

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Gordon Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution.

Lead Plaintiff Kendra Espinoza & IJ’s Attorney Erica Smith on Landmark SCOTUS School Choice Decision

0 Comments
/
This week, in a special segment of “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are honored to be joined by Kendra Espinoza, lead plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, just decided yesterday, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and Erica Smith, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented the plaintiffs.

Hubwonk Ep. 12: Direct Primary Care: Restoring the Connection between Doctors and Patients

0 Comments
/
Join Hubwonk Host Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault as they discuss the benefits of direct primary care. In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Gold shares his vision for the future of primary care and his passion for delivering care the way it was intended – through trust, openness, and investing in the doctor-patient relationship.