History
Jump’s founders, Bill DiSomma and Paul Gurinas, were attracted to the trading business for one reason: they wanted a career where reward was based on merit.
Both Bill and Paul began their careers as floor traders. Bill started trading with Steve Fossett in 1988, and Paul started on the CME floor as a runner in 1990. In 1992, they met in the Deutsche mark pit where they had both recently started trading independently. In 1997, faced with low volatility and shrinking volume in the D-mark pit, Bill and Paul decided to move to the S&P.
Bill and Paul have always embraced changes in technology, often well before their competitors. September of 1997 saw significant changes at the CME, including the release of the S&P e-mini, its first electronic futures market, and the launch of a new wireless headset program. Bill and Paul immediately saw the advantage of using the CME’s new headset program to trade the e-mini and the full-sized S&P contract as a pair. That was the first of many efforts to use the latest technology to gain an edge in trading.
In 1999, Jump's founders were among the first to recognize that the trading volume was quickly migrating to the electronic side and they created Jump Trading to take advantage of that shift. They knew that in order to be successful in electronic trading they would need to create the best trading strategies and have the foresight to take advantage of the latest technologies. Today, this philosophy continues to drive our firm and keeps us at the forefront of algorithmic trading.