The world has changed. Since COVID took us all into lockdown about a year ago, everything from crypto to equity trading has gained pace - and feverishly.  And so, adapt we must.  This is not only true for the modern financial crime fighter that is leveraging Sigma tech to work faster and smarter, but also the trading firm that is trying to stay ahead in all the madness.  

To do so, one hedge fund is seeking an options trader fluent in memes.  According to the job posting, no higher education in economics or finance is required.  Oh, and it pays $200,000.  Not bad for being able to interpret what the below meme means (it means buy because we are going to the moon - or something like that).

If you are wondering what all this means - and why it is important - you are not alone.  

It all stems from the fact that retail trade volume is through the roof.  With the onset of COVID, people are trading more (and essentially gambling more), taking chances and following trends seen on Reddit and in the news like the recent Gamestop trade.  In fact, if you understood memes, you may have been ahead of the recent Gamestop move earlier this week.

But trading equities is not the only thing that is changing fast.  Other stores of value, like NFT (non-fungible tokens) are gaining traction too.  Ok, but what is it?  Call it a new form of art that enables anyone to create value and sell it using a smart contract.  The next question, however, is to whom and why?  Want to get started yourself, check this site out that has you covered: https://mintbase.io/  Want to participate, you may have to wait.  For example, NBA Topshot has limited sign ups due to “high demand”.

What is the most expensive NFT sold to date?  

Well, it is the image below that sold for a whopping $1.6 million.  It's called “Crypto Punk #6965” - maybe not your taste, but it's someone’s and the beginning of a wild new world of value transfer that will be increasingly difficult to validate.