Morning Coffee: 31-year-old ex-Morgan Stanley analyst earns $12k a day doing latest fashionable job. Why senior bankers are disinclined to retire

If you're an analyst in a bank and you have a feeling there are more zeitgeisty jobs you could be doing instead, pay careful attention to 31-year-old Dave Wang. Dave graduated from Harvard University and spent two years working in M&A for Morgan Stanley in New York City. Then he went fashionably off-piste and has remained there ever since. 

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First it was crypto. After leaving Morgan Stanley, where he says he was the lead analyst on the bank's $13bn acquisition of E-Trade, Wang became the Miami-based head of crypto investments for SoftBank's Latin American fund. Then he set up his own digital asset fund, which he tells Bloomberg he sold after generating fine returns. Now, it's AI. 

Wang and his friend - a former associate in the fintech group at Goldman Sachs, with whom he also worked at SoftBank, have founded a company that teaches bankers and hedge fund employees how to use large language models. They are reportedly earning $25k a day between them.

Training people how to use AI is the skill of the moment. As we reported last month, Jane Street has been advertising a $300k job for a "machine learning educator" to run classes for its people. The role is an evolution of the prompt engineering jobs of yore: firms now need people to teach the art of the prompt, not just to write them.

Wang and his friend Felipe Sinisterra are prompt masters. They have prompts for making Claude assign numerical values to management statements to facilitate sentiment analysis. They have prompts for analysing videos of founders' pitches so that inadvertent pauses, winces, or arm folding can be ascribed hidden meaning.

Wang and Sinisterra aren't the only ex-bankers riding the AI train. Taron Arshakian from Deutsche Bank is developing AI benchmarks. Nicholas Lin, also from Morgan Stanley, is automating junior banking jobs out of existence at Anthropic. In every cycle, there are alternatives and money to be made elsewhere. AI is it in 2026.

Separately, if your managing director seems unwilling to retire, it might be because he or she is working hard to provide $337k each to members of his/her extended family. 

The Financial Times notes that it's becoming increasingly imperative to support not only children, but grandchildren. The wife of one London banker in his 50s says they're constantly receiving "wearing" texts saying their adult son needs something for his burgeoning family. Another (already retired) banker says he's given £250k each ($337k) to his grandchildren. “With the cost of property and few jobs that offer security for life, I can’t see how many children will get on unless they have the support of parents and grandparents,” he says. If you can't afford that, keep toiling. 

Meanwhile...

Individual London bankers bought the British government's 2061 bond as a long term bet. It has not worked out well for them and some are selling £50k holdings to exit the trade. (Bloomberg) 

Jobs that are immune to AI in financial services: Senior fund managers, financial advisers building long-term client relationships and risk managers exercising judgment. Jobs that are not immune to AI in financial services: Junior analysts doing data processing and model building. (The Times) 

Elon Musk has been awarded 1.3bn shares with the ultimate vesting conditions. They could be worth $750bn, but only if he establishes a human colony on Mars with 1 million inhabitants. (Bloomberg) 

Quantum computers could hack bitcoin. (FT)

You can earn $260k working on a prediction markets desk at a trading firm or hedge fund. (Financial News) 

How to further yourself as a banking intern. "Overcommunicate by saying "Will do”, “sounds good”, or “On it” constantly so we know the message has been recognized." Make sure you respond to emails promptly. (X) 

Trump seems to be forcing green card applicants to apply in their home countries. "So everyone on a O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog?...This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies." (Business Insider) 

JPMorgan has reserved the right to pursue its own claim against Chirayu Rana. (Bloomberg) 

Laura Hajdini's colleagues say she is a good person: “She came in person to some of our team-building events, even though she would need to stay late to complete her own work after.” (The Times)  

Recruiters really like to find someone with high achievements but a low social class background because this is a signifier of high competence. (Wiley) 

Leigh-Ann Russell, chief information officer and global head of engineering at BNY created a "digital twin" of herself with AI. It recently told her: "You don't get your energy from sleep. You get your energy from creating space for yourself. Don't set your alarm late. Go for a run." This was great. (Business Insider) 

Intellectual giftedness is a neurodivergent condition. It comes with low socio-emotional regulation, heightened sensitivity, neuroticism and potential depression. (Science Direct) 

A key characteristic of Western civilization is the odd combination of ennui and overwork. Who can now be sure what makes something valuable, bar an arbitrary designation of financial worth? The uncertainty transforms the practical advantages of money into an uncontained worship of money. Overwork is a result. (MarkVernon) 

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