I think you're slightly confused at the distinctions between prop shops, hedge funds, asset managers, and model driven quant desks at investment banks. Having w

I think you're slightly confused at the distinctions between prop shops, hedge funds, asset managers, and model driven quant desks at investment banks. Having worked at at least 3 of these, I can tell you again: On the sell side, it's just pricing and hedging out each other's increasingly complex structures. HFT Market makers have some merit in providing tight liquidity and low spreads. Don't even get me started on buy side speculation.