A Simjot story

Mark Johnston

Head of Quant Trading, Chicago — "Familyside Quants"

Markets move fast, but Mark still makes room for family, trust and a life beyond the desk.

At Familyside Quants, Mark leads quant trading across several portfolio-manager teams and a central support team. Behind every model is a person trusting him with something that matters, and every investor family deserves a private lane. Fast-moving broker and counterparty traffic stays inside the Familyside Quants Community Space too, where it cannot flood Mark's family conversations. The firm's office and family property conversations stay in a dedicated CommercialUnits identity. On Arena League, his hackathons give curious young quants a genuine chance to be noticed — and give Mark a more human way to find the next member of his team.

When the markets close, Mark wants room for family, friendship and possibility without carrying the trading floor into every part of his life. The bookkeeper and research intern stay on a Smigig handle, and co-investment talks — alongside the simple hope of making new friends in Chicago — have their own place on Simlaxy.

How each identity helps

Personal identity

mark.j

Primary Chat — Keeps family and close friends away from market, investor and hiring conversations.

Community Spaces they own

familyside-quants

Familyside Quants Community Space — Gives portfolio teams and each investor family accountable lanes while keeping fast-moving broker and counterparty traffic inside the firm.

Community Space → Groupspace → Channels

Community Spacefamilyside-quantsOne protected conversation boundary

GroupspaceCentral support

#broker-flow#counterparties#risk#research#operations

GroupspacePortfolio teams

#desk#models#risk#research

GroupspaceEach investor family

#portfolio#reporting#requests

Products they use

mark.j-hackathons

Arena League — Runs hackathons end to end and turns strong participants into a focused quant-intern pipeline.

mark.j-quant-hiring

Smigig — Recruits a bookkeeper, research support and quant interns without mixing candidates into desk channels.

mark.j-ventures

Simlaxy — Keeps co-investment conversations and new Chicago friendships private and separate from work.

Mark Johnston is an example persona, not a real person.