Yoon Auh spent a decade building trading systems before landing on the program trading desk at Credit Suisse, becoming head trader, then VP at Goldman Sachs, then head trader at Magnetar Capital — where he accidentally invented what became an entire sub-industry on Wall Street. Then he walked away from institutional finance to solve a problem nobody else would touch: your data is Big Tech's product, and they'll never change that. He spent three years and his own money building the answer. Now he holds 14 patents.In this episode, Yoon breaks down the mechanics of quant trading that textbooks skip, the dirty truth about government grants and military contracts, and why Signal, ProtonMail, and every other privacy app is solving the wrong problem.We cover:
College grad → Credit Suisse → Goldman VP → Magnetar: the real path
Index arbitrage, basket trading, and what institutional execution actually looks like
Why quant models blow up in small caps (the bid-ask spread they never mention)
Soft dollars: the hidden Wall Street system that funds research analysts
Why the biggest money is never in trading — it's in building
Finfluencer scams then and now: the fax machine fraud that moved to the internet
"When I say I want to go to Florida — then I see an ad for flights to Florida"
Why Big Tech will never build real privacy tools (it's antithetical to their business model)
The Nut Capsule: encrypted data objects that stay protected outside the app
How BOLTS beats Signal at file sharing — and why Signal stops at messaging
US military grants: SBIR, AFWERX, In-Q-Tel, and how to actually get funded
Israeli and Canadian firms charging Americans to navigate US military grant applications
Only 25% of grant success is merit — a Navy acquisition officer said it on stage
Palantir, Google Earth, and why the CIA funded the biggest tech companies
Why you can't be the same politician you were when you started
Mentorship, relationships, and the Goldman Sachs backup that saved the department
GUEST:
Yoon Auh: Founder & CEO of NUTS Technologies and BOLTS Technologies. Former head trader at Credit Suisse, VP at Goldman Sachs, and head trader at Magnetar Capital. Holder of 14 cybersecurity patents. Building post-quantum, data-centric security infrastructure for the DoD and beyond.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
NUTS Technologies: https://www.nutstechnologies.com
BOLTS Technologies: https://www.boltstechnologies.xyz
MORE OF YOON AUH:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoonauh/
MORE OF ON THE MARGIN:
Website: https://www.themargin.tv
Spotify:
Main Site: https://www.on-the-margin.com
MORE OF BOAZ SOBRADO:
Twitter: https://x.com/sobradob
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sobradob/
Website: https://themargin.tv/boaz-sobrado
MORE OF IVAN PATRIKI:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artizt
Substack: https://substack.com/@artizt
Twitter: https://x.com/Ivan_patriki
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artizt/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ascended
Telegram: https://t.me/ivanpatriki
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
01:09 Who Is Yoon Auh?
01:38 Columbia Grad to Coding Trading Systems for 10 Years
03:17 Landing on the Program Trading Desk at Credit Suisse
04:13 Becoming Head Trader: How He Made Them a Lot of Money
05:53 What Quants Get Wrong About Small Cap Stocks
08:13 The Difference Between Building a Model and Executing One
10:32 Is Yoon Still Trading? Life After Institutional Finance
12:35 The Gut Punch of Trading With Your Own Capital
14:59 Living With Volatility: Why Most People Can't Handle It
17:29 Why the Biggest Money Is Never in Trading
20:19 Soft Dollars: The Hidden Wall Street System Nobody Talks About
22:56 Magnetar Capital and Building the First Soft Dollar Distribution System
27:23 Should Aspiring Quants Buy Courses? The Fax Machine Scam Analogy
30:29 The Finfluencer Problem: Bugattis, Bad Advice & Survivorship Bias
36:30 Why Yoon Left Finance to Start a Company
38:00 "When I Said I Want to Go to Florida — Then I Saw an Ad for Flights"
42:00 Why Big Tech Will Never Build Real Privacy Tools
50:08 The NUTS Ecosystem: Data-Centric Security Explained
57:15 How It's Different From Signal, ProtonMail, and WhatsApp
01:02:00 The Nut Capsule: Encrypted Containers That Travel With Your Data
01:08:31 Will You Add a Government Backdoor? The Honest Answer
01:14:26 Dual Use Technology and the Ethics of Cybersecurity
01:22:00 How to Get US Military Grants as a Small Startup
01:35:40 The Dirty Secret of Government RFPs
01:43:00 Palantir, Google Earth, In-Q-Tel, and CIA-Funded Tech
01:47:00 Only 25% of Grant Success Is Merit (A Navy Officer Said It)
01:52:00 Should You Rise Through the System to Change It?
01:58:00 Power, Politics & Why Everyone Loses Something on the Way Up
02:01:02 The Best Career Advice Nobody Gives You
02:07:06 Closing Thoughts
