Chimera Securities

At Chimera Securities there are no clients and no client money: traders buy and sell US equities with the firm's own capital, and every morning the scoreboard resets to zero. The New York broker-dealer has run this discretionary, intraday model since 2000, pairing newcomers it trains with experienced traders on the floor.

The structure is a sponsored-trader desk, not a hedge fund. Some experienced hires put up a capital contribution depending on their track record, sharing risk with the house; others trade purely on firm money. Twenty-five years in, it remains a Union Square fixture built on proprietary trading software and mentorship rather than outside capital.