A $10 Billion Hedge Fund Founder's AI Manifesto
As a hedge fund, we should be ashamed to leave money on the table
I used ChatGPT to write this email.
Don’t worry friends, I have strict rules about using AI to write on my behalf.
What I’m referencing is an AI Manifesto from Will England, the founder of Walleye, a $10 billion hedge fund.
Here’s the full manifesto (emphasis mine):
You should be using it too and be proud of it.
The message is simple.
Walleye is all-in on AI.
Not using these tools is like refusing to use the Internet in 1995 because it wasn't perfect.
That's just dumb and something I can't understand.
As a hedge fund, we should be ashamed to leave money on the table by ignoring tools that make us faster, smarter, and more effective.
Using ChatGPT is not cheating.
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That's a non-applicable idea from academia, where using AI to do homework or take tests is actually cheating.
In the real world, using AI is like taking a magical elixir that makes you 20% smarter instantly.
So, why wouldn't you use it?
From the very top, we are building a culture around AI.
This is not optional for anyone at Walleye.
If you write, research, analyze, build decks, process data, or think for a living, you should be using ChatGPT and/or other AI tools every single day.
Managers, this is now part of your job.
You need to be pushing this across your teams, starting with being fluent yourself.
AI requires both “cultural” and “technical” activation
Will England is definitely drinking the AI Kool Aid.
In this interview with Dan Shipper from Every he is convinced that AI will transform the financial services industry. But what really struck me was the urgency he feels in fighting the cultural inertia.
One of the biggest obstacles professionals face with AI is that it makes a lot of mistakes. It makes up statistics and creates imaginary competitors — a huge problem for an industry that requires precision. Yet England is unfazed and wants his firm to experiment aggressively:
These tools aren't perfect.
They all have their flaws.
They all do stupid things.
But the direction of travel is very, very positive.
England wants the firm to embrace AI’s imperfections and move away from:
“Oh, it didn't do exactly what I wanted, so I'm just going to ignore it until it's perfect” to “Yeah, this some of the stuff isn't perfect, but you can see where it's going.”
The firm encourages collaboration and publicly sharing what works.
A weekly email shares a “leaderboard” of the most active users.
There are also informal weekly meetups where teams share prompts or workshop different use cases.
A CEO’s sense of responsibility
Not only is England personally invested in succeeding with AI, he feels a deep sense of responsibility for his clients and employees. He acknowledged the anxiety faced by knowledge workers across the world:
People are anxious about what [all this] means. How does this impact my job? What skills do I need to have?
He wants Walleye to be a firm that makes AI tools and training accessible to all employees. This comes from a “sense of responsibility that if we get disrupted by AI” it will fall squarely on England’s shoulders.
I really feel it would be irresponsible of me not to go after it with sort of the maximum amount of discipline and intensity I can muster, which is a lot.
How are they using AI?
The firm does have its roots in quantitative trading but the mandate extends to every function:
Even in accounting, finance, compliance, and legal. Yes, you should be using either ChatGPT, Grok or some LLM to assist in anything that requires analysis or writing.
He describes:
Sentiment analysis using LLMs to process unstructured data
Recording every meeting to analyze investment decisions retroactively
Processing earnings and news releases for rapid fundamental analysis
As CEO, England needs to communicate often and effectively:
When I want to write an email or a memo, I do it in bullet point form. I type out “here's what I'm thinking, here's why.” I work on my prompts. And maybe I'll give a bunch of context. I ask it to give me something in my own voice. And that can be — no exaggeration — a 15-minute process that would have taken me four or five hours historically.
The “AI uptake” at Walleye has been impressive: 75% of the firm uses ChatGPT on a daily basis and 1/3 of the team uses AI-assisted coding tools like Cursor or Windsurf.
AI won’t outsource thinking and judgement
I strongly feel that AI won’t reduce our brains to slop.
At the minimum, it’s a place to outsource rote and repetitive tasks.
But when used correctly, it’s the ultimate coach, collaborator and intellectual sparring partner.
Think about it, did hiring junior employees make you dumber?
Au contraire, mon frere.
You had to become clearer in your objectives and shift towards even more high-level thinking. And great employees required you to completely level up your game.
England agrees that these tools don’t eliminate the need to think:
If anything, they should just give you more time to think. If you have an hour to complete this task and historically 50% of that time was just going to be mechanically typing it out. And now it takes 5% of the time. So you have more time to think.
Personally, I’ll use that extra time to go surfing.