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I stayed at the most famous hotel in Athens. Its rooftop restaurant with Acropolis views can't be missed, even if you're not a guest.

Sat, 02 May 2026 10:45:01 -0000

Hotel Grande Bretagne is the oldest and most famous hotel in Athens, Greece.

Courtesy of Hotel Grande Bretagne

Hotel Grande Bretagne, which opened in 1874, is the oldest and most famous hotel in Athens, Greece.
The hotel survived both World Wars and was where the modern Green government was formed.
Its rooftop restaurant, which has a perfect view of the Acropolis, was my favorite part.

Tucked into the beating heart of Athens, with a perfect view of the Acropolis and mere steps from Greece's former royal palace, stands the Hotel Grande Bretagne.

It's a noble name with a reputation to match, attracting powerful leaders and royals from all over the world, including British kings (Charles III) and American queens (Lady Gaga).

Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Marriott property, is not only the oldest hotel in the city that birthed democracy, but it's also the most famous. So when I planned a trip to Greece, I knew I had to stay there.

Could the 5-star hotel live up to its royal reputation?

The Hotel Grande Bretagne has always had a prime spot in the capital city.

Courtesy of the Hotel Grande Bretagne

The Grande Bretagne sits in Syntagma Square, which was renamed in 1843 to commemorate the first constitution granted to the Greek people ("Syntagma" means "constitution" in Greek).

Many hotel rooms have views of the Greek Parliament, allowing guests to watch the famous Changing of the Guard ceremony from their balconies. Also across the street is the National Garden — a lush escape with flowers, ponds, and even some ancient ruins.

Additional tourist attractions — including the Monastiraki flea market and Acropolis museum — are within walking distance from the Grande Bretagne, and a metro station is just around the corner.

I was immediately impressed with the towering columns and ornate touches in the opulent lobby.

The lobby of Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

Men in forest-green jackets with gold buttons and matching hats opened the front door, inviting me into a lobby already bustling with energy on a Sunday morning.

A cornucopia of patterns, including the iconic meander motif that borders so much ancient Greek architecture, covered the marble floors. Heavy gold mirrors hung from the walls, adding to the regal atmosphere.

I admired the marble and gold accents as I checked in.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

"You're Greek!" a woman at the front desk happily exclaimed after looking at my passport. She then sent me up to the sixth floor so I could see how the VIP check-in differed.

A receptionist delivered a heavy flute of Champagne and apologized that my room wasn't ready, revealing that the hotel — which has 259 guest rooms and 61 suites — was "fully booked, again."

She noted that guests staying in the hotel's suites have access to a 24-hour butler service, which includes a WhatsApp number you can text to book reservations or ask for recommendations.

I decided to head to the pool while I waited for my room, sharing an elevator with a British couple and their teenage son.

"How's the Champagne?" the man asked his wife.

"Pretty good," she replied. "Not as good as the one on the flight."

For the record, I thought the Champagne was delicious.

The hotel's outdoor pool overlooks Mount Lycabettus, the highest point in central Athens.

The outdoor pool at Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

It's a stunning sight, especially as you look out across the sea of hundreds of white-roofed apartment buildings.

The pool itself was packed, no surprise since I was there during the peak summer season. When I tried to sit on a daybed that appeared unclaimed, a staff member ran up to me and said it was reserved. In fact, all 16 daybeds were occupied.

He asked if I wanted to be added to a waitlist, but I opted to grab some lunch instead. When I went back to the pool right after breakfast the next day, there were plenty of open daybeds.

For lunch, I decided to try the Winter Garden restaurant in the hotel lobby.

The Winter Garden City Lounge at Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

With its elaborate stained-glass ceiling, high-tea offering, and classical music playing in the background, the atmosphere felt more like a British palace than a Grecian resort.

The menu similarly leaned on dishes you could find in any European or American hotel: Caesar salad, burgers, lobster rolls, carbonara pasta, and avocado toast.

It was a bit of a mishmash, but I spotted a few Greek classics to order.

I opted for the Greek salad and avgolemono soup.

Avgolomeno soup from Hotel Grande Bretagne's Winter Garden City Lounge.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

My parents immigrated to the US from Greece in the 1980s and cooked dishes like avgolemono soup and Greek salad (also known as horiatiki) weekly. I'm a tough critic when it comes to both, but I also find them deeply nostalgic.

The Greek salad at Winter Garden was solid, albeit unmemorable. It didn't compare to the fantastic version I had eaten at Ella — a nearby Athens restaurant — a few nights prior, or to the best I've ever had (my mother's, obviously).

My father's avgolemono soup also reigned supreme, though I did enjoy this version's lovely, light broth and tender chicken.

The presentation for both dishes was also sloppier than I'd expect at a luxury hotel. I'm currently taking a monthslong cooking course, and my teacher won't even let us serve our classmates' dishes without wiping the plates. When you're operating at a 5-star level, these small details make all the difference.

When I reached out to the hotel for comment regarding the presentation of Winter Garden's food, a spokesperson apologized that it wasn't as "refined as it should have been."

My room was ready by the time lunch was finished.

The living space in my room at Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

The Grande Bretagne offers a variety of rooms and suites, some with views of the Acropolis. Room rates start at $641 per night, while suites start at $985.

Business Insider received a media rate for two nights.

My suite opened into the living room, which featured a small couch, a desk, a large window, and a balcony with a view of the Greek Parliament.

Heavy drapes, a chandelier, and the patterned rug added to the palatial feel, but the dependence on yellow and beige tones was a bit one-note.

Instead of being transportive, it made the room feel a little stuffy and old-fashioned. A few splashes of color would have made the space feel a tad more welcoming.

A spokesperson for Grande Bretagne said the hotel's rooms "reflect a classic design inspired by the heritage and character of the hotel."

The bedroom featured a plush king bed underneath a chandelier.

My room at Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

Illustrations and lamps flanked the bed, while a floor-to-ceiling window, framed by fringed drapes, provided natural light.

I sank into the deluxe bed and, with the help of its soft sheets, immediately surrendered to an afternoon nap.

The marble bathroom was huge, a rare find in a European hotel room.

The bathroom was covered in marble.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

The bathroom featured a separate shower and tub, along with double vanities. It was easily one of the most spacious showers I'd seen during my travels across Europe — always a huge plus.

That night, I headed upstairs to have dinner at the GB Roof Garden Restaurant & Bar.

The GB Roof Garden Restaurant at Hotel Grande Bretagne.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

Located on the eighth floor of the Grande Bretagne, the open-air restaurant features beautiful, uninterrupted views of the Acropolis and Parthenon.

The restaurant's interior design is kept relatively simple and chic with comfy sand-colored chairs, wooden accents, and white marble columns.

It's a smart choice — why try to compete with the most famous landmark in all of Greece?

Watching the sun set over the Acropolis was a moment I'll never forget.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

The Parthenon appeared to glow as it basked in the sun's rays. The sight of it was so beautiful, I couldn't help get emotional. And I wasn't the only one.

"I don't care what this meal costs," I overheard a man softly tell his wife at the table next to me. "You can't put a price on this."

GB Roof Garden's dishes were fresh, creative, and beautifully plated.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

At the recommendation of my server, I kicked things off with the seafood trilogy — a carpaccio-style dish seasoned with chives and lime. The fish was oh-so-tender, and I loved the splashes of chili oil, which added some heat and artistic flair.

An appetizer of wild artichoke stuffed with pickled artichoke and anchovy was another standout. The dish was topped with a generous serving of caviar, roasted leaves for crunch, and a sauce made with additional leaves and infused with mint and cumin.

Unexpected and extremely memorable, it was fine dining at its best.

The breakfast buffet is also served at GB Roof Garden, offering fresh Greek pastries and beautiful morning views.

Breakfast at Hotel Grande Bretagne's GB Roof Garden.

Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider

I have always had a deep love for hotel breakfast buffets, especially when they're unafraid to stray from the classics.

GB Roof Garden embraces its roots with a plethora of sweet and savory phyllo-covered pies, including spanakopita (stuffed with spinach) and tiropitakia (stuffed with cheese). They both get my stamp of approval.

The strapatsada, a Greek dish of scrambled eggs with tomato and feta, was another highlight. The eggs were cooked to creamy and cheesy perfection, a rare find when they aren't made-to-order.

I also really appreciated that the hotel's breakfast opens at 6:30 a.m., allowing me to grab a hearty meal before my 14-hour flight back to Los Angeles. It turned out to be necessary, since I was flying with the budget airline Norse Atlantic.

Even if you can't stay at the Grande Bretagne, the rooftop restaurant is a must-visit in Athens.

Courtesy of Hotel Grande Bretagne

Grande Bretagne is a 5-star hotel with 5-star prices, but you can still experience some of its magic with a dinner or some drinks at the GB Roof Garden.

There are many places in Athens that advertise Acropolis views, but this was the best I saw during my week in the city.

Who knows, maybe you'll cry too!

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Your LinkedIn profile is your 'digital first impression.' Here's how to make it a good one.

Sat, 02 May 2026 10:37:01 -0000

Joi-Marie McKenzie

This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

'Your LinkedIn is trash'

Those were the blunt words I heard from Latoya Antonio, a Spencer Stuart advisor, as she gave a presentation on how to ensure executives are prepared to join boards and other forms of executive leadership.

I was sitting in an ornately decorated conference room at ExcelerateHer Women's Leadership Summit, founded by PMM Agency CEO Kimberly Blackwell.

Still, Antonio's wise words made my ears perk up because even though it was harsh, I knew it was true for many. How often are we poring over our LinkedIn profile and not just listing our experience, but curating it to strategically position us in our careers?

Business Insider's newsroom is filled with LinkedIn fans, and it reminded me to take a peek at my own profile to ensure it's up to date with best practices. So, I reached out to LinkedIn for their advice on how to boost your profile.

LinkedIn Career Expert Catherine Fisher told me to "think of your profile as your digital first impression." Here are her three tips to improve it:

Choose a strong profile photo. "Your photo is the first impression people get, so make it count. Professionals with a profile photo receive up to 2x more profile views. You don't need anything fancy, just a clear, well-lit headshot with a simple background where you look like yourself. It's a simple way for your friends, colleagues, or former classmates to recognize and discover you on LinkedIn."

Showcase your Education and Experience. "To help recruiters find you on LinkedIn, make sure your Experience section clearly highlights your strengths and key wins. Add in your education, side projects, and volunteer work so they can see the full scope of what you bring. And don't overlook the Featured section; this is a great place to drop in articles, presentations, or other work so recruiters can easily scan your previous work."

Add a Verification badge. "It's worth taking a minute to verify your profile. People with a verified badge stand out. By confirming your info, you're telling the community and future employers that you're the real deal. Plus, it works! Verified members get a massive 60% boost in profile views. It's more than a badge; it's your professional edge."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Here are the billionaires competing at the Kentucky Derby — and their odds of winning

Sat, 02 May 2026 10:01:01 -0000

Renegade, owned by billionaires Robert and Lawana Low, and Mike Repole, has 4-1 odds of winning the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Alex Slitz/Getty Images

The 152nd Kentucky Derby starts on Saturday morning at Churchill Downs Racetrack.
The first-place winner receives $3.1 million and the coveted Kentucky Derby trophy.
Here are some of the billionaire owners who could cash in.

Horseracing is an expensive sport.

So it's no surprise that among the crowd cheering on 20 thoroughbred horses during the Kentucky Derby's main race at Churchill Downs Racetrack on Saturday are at least eight billionaires.

The annual event has once again descended upon Louisville, bringing with it a blur of pastel outfits, flamboyant hats, and mint juleps. The annual event, entering its 152nd year, is the pinnacle of American horse racing and draws competitors from around the world.

Horse racing often involves spending millions of dollars at horse auctions, as well as money for training fees, transportation costs, veterinary care, jockey payments, and other expenses. Plus, entering the Kentucky Derby alone can cost about $50,000.

Updated Post Positions for the 152nd Kentucky Derby

The hottest routes in private aviation right now say a lot about where money's moving

Sat, 02 May 2026 09:53:01 -0000

Shifts in private jet traffic underline new patterns for the ultrarich.

J. David Ake/Getty Images

Private jet travel is on the rise, and new routes underline the behavior of the wealthy.
These popular routes highlight new financial centers and how the rich split time between multiple homes.
Private jet traffic soared along these 11 routes last year.

A surge in private jet travel along key routes last year points to a new map of global wealth.

Eleven routes saw at least a 65% increase in private jet traffic last year, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank's annual wealth report that included data from private aviation company VistaJet.

While established routes, like those between New York and London or New York and Miami, continue to dominate overall traffic, these growing routes offer a glimpse into the behavior of the ultra-high-net-worth set and where capital is moving.

Some destinations, like Nantucket, New England, have long been popular among the wealthy, and the uptick in private jet travel can be attributed to the overall increase in private jet travel. There were 3.9 million private jet flights last year, a 4.6% increase over 2024, according to data from aviation intelligence firm WingX published earlier this year.

Other routes, like that between Abu Dhabi and London, reflect current market conditions and real estate shifts.

"We see global wealth becoming increasingly mobile, with clients living across multiple cities and continents," Ian Moore, the chief commercial officer at VistaJet, said in a statement.

Looking ahead to 2026, one important caveat that could change the private jet map is the war in Iran, which has slowed down travel to Middle Eastern hubs.

Here are the 11 private jet routes with soaring traffic in 2025.

Jeddah and Riyadh: up 269%

The Saudi capital of Riyadh has become a center of capital in the Middle East.

Fayez Nureldine / AFP via Getty Images

The triple-digit increase in this domestic route, between the Saudi capital of Riyadh and the port city of Jeddah, reflects Saudi Arabia's transformation into a global wealth capital.

The country's billionaire population is projected to nearly triple over the next five years, and luxury real estate prices in Riyadh increased 78% price between 2020 and 2025, according to the Knight Frank report.

Abu Dhabi and London: up 238%

Investment firms have flocked to Abu Dhabi in recent years.

DeAgostini/Getty Images

Investments in Abu Dhabi have boomed over the past five years, with private equity firm KKR and hedge fund titan Ray Dalio opening new offices in the city.

With wealthy Londoners, in particular, looking to move capital out of the city due to more stringent tax codes, Abu Dhabi has come to rival Dubai as a financial hub of the UAE.

Nantucket and New York: up 192%

Nantucket has long been a vacation destination of the uber-wealthy.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Nantucket has always been a popular vacation destination for the uberrich, with billionaires like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Charles Schwab.

The increase in flights between New York and Nantucket "underlines the rise of dual-location lifestyles in the US," the report says. Rather than spending a week or two on Nantucket in the summer, the wealthy are flying back and forth between their primary and secondary residences more frequently.

Nice and Palma: up 137%

Palma, in Mallorca, has become a popular yachting destination.

Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images

This Mediterranean route between Nice, France, and Palma, on the Spanish island of Mallorca, points to popular summer vacation destinations of the wealthy — and their superyachts.

Last summer, David Geffen's yacht floated off the coast of Mallorca, hosting Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, and Kris Jenner, while Jeff Bezos' superyacht Koru traveled through the French Riviera.

London and Samedan: up 137%

St. Moritz, Switzerland, is a luxury ski destination.

Pierre Vauthey/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

Private jet travel between Farnborough Airport, near London, and Samedan Airport in Switzerland, near luxury ski resort St. Moritz, has seen an uptick as multi-location living grows.

It's about more than vacationing, though. With a harsher tax regime affecting the wealthy in the UK, some are moving their capital to Switzerland, a more tax-friendly destination.

Washington, DC, and White Plains: up 107%

Flights between Washington, DC, and White Plains, New York, connect government and finance hubs.

Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The route between D.C. and White Plains, a suburb of New York City, makes up the "government-finance corridor," the report says.

Cannes and Paris: 100%

Cannes is popular among both businesspeople and vacationers.

Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Global festivals and events, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes Lions, bring celebrities and businesspeople to the city in southern France every year. Cannes also sees a surge of jet travel in the summer, with the wealthy traveling to the luxury resorts and superyachts that dot its coast.

Boca Raton and New York: 70%

Flights to Boca Raton from New York have increased as wealthy Americans continue to spend more time at multiple residences.

Barry Winiker/Getty Images

Boca Raton, like many other South Florida destinations, has experienced an influx of wealth. As the "dual-location lifestyle" becomes more popular, the number of flights to the Palm Beach County city has increased.

Mumbai and New Delhi: up 66%

Mumbai is India's financial and luxury capital.

Alex Robinson Photography/Getty Images

As in Saudi Arabia, India's growing economic power has led to more domestic flights between its major hubs.

Along with the US and China, India was a major engine of global wealth creation growth over the past five years, and that isn't expected to slow down. The country is expected to see its billionaire population increase 51% over the next five years, with Mumbai, in particular, becoming a wealth hub, according to the report.

Milan to Paris: up 66%

Italy's flat tax policy has made Milan a desirable location for wealthy Europeans.

Comezora/Getty Images

Flights between Milan and Paris, the world's fashion capitals, increased due to the industry's ties to wealth.

Rich Europeans are also flocking to Milan as a tax haven, due to Italy's flat tax structure.

Hong Kong and Tokyo

Hong Kong is one of Asia's long-standing wealth hubs.

Yaorusheng/Getty Images

Private air traffic increased along the route between Hong Kong and Tokyo, two of Asia's wealth hubs.

Tokyo, in particular, has experienced a boost in demand among the rich, reflected in a 58.5% price increase for luxury residential real estate between 2024 and 2025, according to the report.

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I got a behind-the-scenes look at Walmart's new digital price tags that are sparking controversy

Sat, 02 May 2026 09:45:01 -0000

Walmart is switching from traditional paper price tags, as shown on the right, to electronic shelf labels, as shown on the left.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart is rolling out digital price tags in its US stores, and public reaction has been mixed.
I visited two locations to see how the tech works for employees and customers.
The change for shoppers is small right now, but the tech could lead to some interesting improvements.

A big change is afoot at Walmart, and some shoppers are starting to notice.

It all comes down to one of the smallest (but most important) features of any store: price tags.

The retail giant's adoption of so-called digital shelf labels in place of traditional paper ones is causing a bit of confusion and concern about whether shoppers will get a fair deal.

Several lawmakers have filed bills to prevent the tech from being used for surveillance pricing or surge charging. A proposal in New York State would prohibit electronic shelf labels in stores altogether.

Walmart said in March that about half of its stores have the technology, and the remaining ones are expected to get it within the next year.

To learn more about these shelf labels and see how they behave in the wild, I visited two Wisconsin supercenters to talk to employees who are navigating the change.

I visited the Walmart in Portage, Wisconsin, where staff were setting up the new shelf labels.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Most of the store still had paper labels, and the team had been working around the clock for two days before my visit to install the digital labels.

Walmart employee Elizabeth Nigh showed me the typical price change process with the paper tags.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

As many as a dozen employees can be busy during a shift, working through the changes.

On Tuesday morning, the store had nearly 1,200 prices to change across departments.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart prices are set by the corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and managed by store workers with an app on their devices.

The paper price tags are made using small portable printers.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Other hardware is sometimes needed, such as colorful frames and pop-ups, to help a special price stand out on the shelf.

Each four-foot section of the store has a code to scan that calls up labels to print for that location.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart assigns every item a location in the store, typically including the aisle, segment, shelf, and position.

Nigh then fishes the old label out of its plastic sleeve and slots the new one in.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

If there is a discrepancy between the shelf price and the register price, consumer protection laws generally require retailers to honor the lower one.

Customers don't typically complain if they're rung up for less than they expected to pay, but it can be a rude surprise for a shopper (and lost money for a retailer) if a price increase isn't yet reflected on the shelf.

The printer handles up to 10 labels at once, so larger runs are done in batches.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Each shade of lip gloss had its own product code, so each one needed a label.

That can add up fast in categories with a lot of variations, like health and beauty.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

The typical Walmart supercenter carries around 120,000 products, and prices in some departments, like grocery, can rise and fall in a matter of days due to market conditions.

I then spoke with Derek Gordon, who was installing digital shelf labels in the toys and games section.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

He said it takes him about six minutes to adapt a standard shelf section for electronic labels. It's a few minutes of extra work up front, but he said it saves time down the line compared to paper labels.

In most cases, a rail clips onto the shelf face in a few clicks.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

An integrated battery in the rail can power the electronic labels for up to eight years. A spokesperson told me the design was more economical than having each label contain its own battery.

Gordon scans the tag's barcode with an app to make sure it's on the correct product.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Like with the paper price tags, each four-foot section has a particular plan that store employees must follow and match.

The system Gordon set up had no sensors or cameras that could capture information about who was shopping.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

He said that meant the labels couldn't gather or transmit any personal information about shoppers.

A proposed bill in New York state would ban retailers from using shoppers' personal information to adjust prices selectively.

Once scanned, Gordon taps a button, and the tags flicker on to reveal the prices in the system.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart told me prices are set by the corporate office in Bentonville, and changes are pushed out to stores overnight.

Some social media videos have captured the prices changing on the electronic labels in the early hours of the morning, before most stores are open for business.

Gordon had a box of the old tags and a bin full of the new ones.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Employees at another store I visited said the digital tags are more durable than the paper ones against shopping carts and other hazards, but they still sometimes get banged up. If a tag breaks or goes offline, it alerts the staff via the app.

Store manager Zach Zeman told me he has the authority to lower prices to stimulate sales, but he can't raise them above the range set by HQ.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

"There's no way for us to be able to adjust that price up higher," he said, adding that there's an error alert if someone accidentally enters a number above the authorized price. The store manager at another location I visited said the same thing.

Store prices generally match what is displayed on Walmart.com, Zeman said.

The new tags are also less likely to slide side to side on the rails, which means that displays are more consistent with the planned layout.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

The workers called this concept "modular integrity" and said it helps make restocking easier when there's enough space for each item.

It's here, faced with dozens of similar items on a shelf, that digital labels could make a difference for shoppers.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart plans to roll out a feature for shoppers in its app that would activate an LED light on the shelf tag to help customers find what they're looking for.

The feature is already available for employees and Spark delivery drivers, but the company hasn't said when it'll be available for customers.

These little blinking lights are shortening pick times and increasing order accuracy, an employee told me.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

"It's definitely made it a lot faster with grabbing things," said Ben Leikness, the digital fulfillment team lead at another store I visited in Wisconsin. "As long as it has a digital shelf label, I can just hit scan, and it flashes right away."

As we were talking about the lights, a Spark driver rounded the corner and picked a Kinder's salt blend that she had activated the tag on.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

"It's so handy," she said of the feature.

Walmart's stores are powering double-digit e-commerce growth, and the digital labels are making order fulfillment more efficient.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

In addition to finding exact items more quickly, Leikness said his team spends half as much time hunting down products in the back room after his store installed digital shelf labels last fall. Part of the reason is that the time workers used to spend updating price labels can now be spent making sure shelves are stocked.

The iconic paper price signage that marks large displays isn't going away — yet.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

Walmart told me it has some tech in the works for this kind of display, but that's not rolling out yet.

Another store I visited had midsize displays with clearer product information than I'm used to seeing on conventional labels.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

I generally found these electronic displays easier to read than their paper-based counterparts.

The main benefit for in-store shoppers right now seems to be more confidence that the price on the shelf is the same or better than what's online.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

The addition of the flashing LED option would likely be a welcome feature when it finally rolls out. In the meantime, store employees are being reassigned from adjusting prices to assisting shoppers.

Online shoppers — who never come into the store — stand to benefit most, since their orders can be fulfilled more quickly.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

While I understand why people might be uneasy about this new technology, Walmart's approach isn't really built for selectively setting prices. It looks like the larger impact would be time savings for workers, which would also benefit shoppers.

Digital labels enable everyone — shoppers, employees, and the company — to get on the same page.

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BCG official says companies 'need to start the pump' on spending AI tokens

Sat, 02 May 2026 09:44:01 -0000

Sylvain Duranton

Courtesy of Boston Consulting Group

Companies need to start measuring their AI token usage, BCG's Sylvain Duranton told Business Insider.
Duranton said that companies should also understand the risks of holding back too much.
"I think you need to start the pump," he said.

There's pressure on employees to up their AI token consumption.

Sylvain Duranton, global leader of BCG X, Boston Consulting Group's tech build and design division, said companies need to ensure they are preparing for the future.

"I think you need to start the pump," Duranton told Business Insider.

Asked about how companies should think about a "Tokenmaxxing" culture, Duranton said early on, companies will go all out before steering their token allocation more.

"I feel in the early days, companies will be pushing for massive usage and then progressively allocation, thinking around that, all of that will progress," he said. "But today being too restrictive, I think from the get-go on that usage, I'm not sure it's good."

Tokens are how large language models break down words into numerical inputs and outputs, and are essentially the building blocks of AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude. The conversation around token consumption has changed drastically in the past month or so, as the explosion of AI agents has altered how users and companies consume AI.

Not everyone is fully embracing the push.

Duranton said C-suites are strained between CFOs who are seeing the explosion in AI budgets and CIOs who are saying that "Engineers who are not burning one million tokens per day, they're not doing their job."

"There's a tension between all CFOs who start to go, 'My God, this is going to cost a lot,' and the notion that that's how you will make a difference, because those super users will be super effective, high productivity, they need to use the tokens," he said.

There's also tension within teams between engineers who want to keep doing that work and those who are deploying all the AI tools they can.

"We see even in software engineering teams, you have some people who burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, and you have super strong engineers who stay out," Duranton said, adding the latter group is putting themselves "on the trajectory to become obsolete."

For companies looking to find their bearings, Duranton said "the first thing" companies need to do is to start measuring token consumption, if they don't already.

One criticism of "Tokenmaxxing" leaderboards is that token consumption alone doesn't reveal what an employee is doing.

"If everyone is burning tokens to write poems and do pictures, there's not much benefit," Duranton said. "If those tokens are burned to create a massive jump in productivity or sales conversion in the customer center, it makes a huge difference for the company."

Duranton said companies will compete over the most efficient use of tokens, just as they do with recruiting.

"Companies have been competing from a strategic standpoint on resource allocation, and those resources were people and they were capital," he said, adding, "I think tokens will be the next one."

Read the original article on Business Insider

One post about Jane Street's tough interview process turned into a big internet joke. Here are the craziest replies.

Sat, 02 May 2026 09:41:01 -0000

Jane Street has a notoriously difficult interview process for quantitative researchers and traders.

hobo_018/Getty Images

A social media post sparked a string of jokes about Jane Street's notorious interview process.
Posts about fake interviews mention orange chicken, cardio machines, and New York City pigeons.
The trading firm, which offers recent grads $300,000 base salaries, is known for top talent.

The interminable Trader Joe's line. Chess tables in Bryant Park. An Equinox StairMaster.

These are just some of the locations social media users are linking to Jane Street in an increasingly absurd string of jokes about the trading firm's notoriously difficult interview process for quantitative researchers and traders.

It all started after Deedy Das, a partner at the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, posted about Jane Street's reported record trading haul and what he said was his own sixth-round interview in 2014.

"What is the next day after today in DD/MM/YYYY where all the digits are unique?" he recalled being asked in a post on X.

After he answered, the interviewer asked him to rate his confidence on a scale of zero to one, Das said. He said he initially answered "0.95," but moments later realized he could flip the digits to get a closer, and ultimately correct, date. The interviewer "chuckled" about Das' confidence rating.

"That's when I knew I failed," Das wrote.

Jane Street made ~$40B in 2025 with 3,500 employees, a ~2x from the year before.

At ~65-70% profit margin, that's $8M profit / employee, the highest for a 1000+ ppl company. High-frequency trading continues to be the most efficient money making engine.

I want to share an old… pic.twitter.com/8wsUQmyR0k
— Deedy (@deedydas) April 25, 2026

His post, with more than 640 reposts as of Friday morning, spawned a pile-on, with people drafting elaborate, seemingly fictitious tales of their interviews. Jane Street is known as one of Wall Street's most lucrative, selective trading firms. In recent years, it offered some interns a base salary equivalent to $250,000 annually; an open quantitative trader role for recent graduates with "a strong quantitative mind" who enjoy "solving interesting problems" offers a $300,000 base salary.

Jane Street's website says the interview process begins with phone conversations and culminates in an in-person interview with a quantitative trader, which includes questions on problem-solving, probability, coding, and data analysis. A source familiar with Jane Street's hiring process said that mental math no longer plays an important role.

Sean Sweeney, a managing director at CW Talent Solutions, a recruiting firm for hedge funds and quantitative investment firms, doesn't work with Jane Street, but does recruit for similar firms.

"If we have a candidate that was exceptional anywhere else, they might not even make it past the first-round screening with Jane Street. The bar is just so high," he said.

The math and trading games emphasize how someone thinks more than their final answer, he said. Some of the employees have been tracked since they were teenagers, Sweeney said, though they don't all have strictly mathematical backgrounds.

Many of the most outlandish social media jokes take Jane Street's penchant for quantitative expertise and creativity to the extreme.

A representative for Jane Street declined to comment for this article.

No job offers

One 384-word post talks about standing in a long, snaking line at the Trader Joe's on 14th Street in Manhattan, orange chicken and cold brew concentrate in hand. A man in a Patagonia vest and a quarter-zip stood ahead in line, so the story goes, and held a box over his shoulder.

"Ant on a corner of this box. Walks to the opposite corner along edges. How many shortest paths," the evidently made-up interviewer asked. The interview questions grew increasingly difficult, and, as is characteristic of the joke posts, the interviewee was asked to rate their confidence in their answer on a scale of 0 to 1.

Eventually, the post ends with the offer rescinded and the applicant banned from the 14th Street Trader Joe's.

Had a Jane Street interview in 2014

End of round 5. Interviewer says "round 6 will find you."

Three weeks. Nothing.

I'm in line at the Trader Joe's on 14th. Line snakes past the frozen aisle, the way it always does. I'm holding a bag of orange chicken and a four-pack of cold… https://t.co/jm0j0d1ulu
— Tristan (@Tristan0x) April 27, 2026

Another post jokes about a seventh-round interview at chess tables in Washington Square Park, where the applicant was instructed to "optimize" the game and "market make this game." In the end, he lost $60 and didn't get the job.

"Failed to recognize that the park itself was the market and the pigeons were the only rational actors," the post ends.

One user came up with a story where an interviewer walked in with coffee and an Ikea tea candle, but no laptop or notebook. The fake applicant was told to "optimize" a budget that allocated $3,600 for candles and specified that their family was "dying." After the applicant built a model and debated when to sell the candles, the family was "still dying, but now in a more capital-efficient way."

And though Jane Street boasts its own on-site gym, one of the joke posts recalls an interview at Equinox at 6 am. The interviewer was on the StairMaster, commenting on an imagined Goldman Sachs MD who used the rowing machine every morning.

It ended with the applicant throwing away an untouched smoothie — and, of course, no job offer.

Read the original article on Business Insider

A Wall Street Bets moderator shares his insights from 12 years of watching the meme-stock crowd

Sat, 02 May 2026 09:40:01 -0000

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Noor Al has been moderating the wild Wall Street Bets subreddit since 2014.
The investing forum rose to fame during the GameStop short squeeze that gave rise to the meme stock movement.
Al credits Wall Street Bets for his trading success and highlights its virbrant meme culture.

Noor Al compares his work as a WallStreetBets moderator on Reddit to tending a garden. Sometimes it's a mess but it's always rewarding

The retail trader has been helping moderate the popular investing forum since 2014, long before the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 that made the Reddit forum famous.

"I kept complaining about [stuff] until another moderator stepped in and said, 'Well, why don't you fix it?' And that's what I did. I did for many, many years in the background, just quietly fixing things in auto moderator, cleaning up posts and sharing my own ideas."

Founded by Jaime Rogozinski in 2012, the Reddit investing forum would be the breeding ground not just for the GameStop short squeeze, but for the entire meme stock movement

Al recalls the early days of WallStreetBets, long before it became a hub for the retail traders looking to duke it out with Wall Street short-sellers, many of whom would go on to be inspired by fellow user Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty.

At the time, he was still working in corporate finance after graduating from Canada's Wilfrid Laurier University with a degree in economics. He noted that he wasn't prepared for what would eventually unfold on the forum.

"It was really intense," he noted. "I remember taking time off work, just sitting in voice chat with the other moderators and we were just filtering posts 24/7."

WallStreetBets moderator Noor Al

Noor Al.

He added that much of the challenge came from communicating what Wall Street Bets actually is, and what is allowed versus what isn't. At the time, the forum had users who saw it as a platform to try to pump up stocks for their own benefit, something that Al described as "unjustifiable."

While Al noted that this was far from easy, he feels confident that he and his fellow moderators kept the platform safe for novice traders as its user count surged, growing by as much as a million a day for multiple days in a row at the peak of meme mania.

"Wall Street bets has always been a place where smart people come and act stupid," he noted. "I recall that famous quote, 'any community that gets their laughs from pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by them.' And I think that was definitely very true for GameStop."

Indeed, Wall Street Bets refers to its users (and they refer to each other) as "degenerates." The forum is known for a culture of playful insults, but Al attributes much of his success as an options trader to the platform and the connections he has made there, highlighting the culture of idea-sharing and feedback that thrive there.

"The great part about Reddit is, unlike with equity reports or analyst coverage, you can easily go out and ask people questions about their research," he said.

Al also highlighted the benefits of being part of a community in which people deliver blunt feedback on trade ideas, which he says can often save people from their own egos and prevent what could have been ill-fated market moves.

Al advises traders to take a contrarian position when it comes to popular ideas and argue with fellow users until they get to the bottom of something they're interested in.

"I think if you're a new investor, you want to deeply understand what the trades are that you're making and why they're available," he noted. "There's a ton of information out there."

While he happily recalls the helpful trading insights he's gained from the Reddit community, Al also advises new and aspiring traders to be careful. Reddit is home to many people sharing screenshots of big gains, but that doesn't mean the information is always reliable.

"If you see someone with a consistently high win rate making tons of money hand over fist, don't believe that they're going to sell you their secrets for $500 a month," he cautioned.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Do Options Exhibit Momentum?

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 02:43:48 -0000

Momentum has been studied extensively across equities, commodities, and other asset classes, with well-documented evidence of cross-sectional and time-series continuation effects. More recently, an emerging line of research has shifted attention to momentum in option returns, examining whether derivative markets exhibit their own systematic return patterns.

In this post, we review the latest evidence on option return momentum across both monthly and intraday horizons and assess the economic mechanisms that may explain these persistent dynamics.

Momentum in the Option Market

In the financial market, momentum is the tendency for assets to continue moving in the same direction. It is a reflection of the underlying strength or weakness of an asset’s price action and can be used to identify trends. Momentum is one of the most pervasive market phenomena and can be observed in nearly all stock markets around the world.

Does this anomaly exist in other asset classes?

Reference [1] studied momentum in the options market. It examined the returns of delta-neutral straddles on individual equities.

Findings

-The study finds strong evidence of momentum in option returns, as options that performed well over the previous 6 to 36 months tend to generate high returns in the subsequent month.

-Momentum is observed under both cross-sectional and time-series definitions of past performance.

-The strategy is profitable across all five-year subsamples and carries significantly lower risk than short straddle positions on the S&P 500 Index or individual stocks.

-There is no evidence of momentum crashes in option returns, although the sample length may limit detection of such events.

-The authors find limited evidence of short-term cross-sectional reversal, where options that outperform in one month may underperform in the following month.

-There is no evidence of long-run reversal in option returns, in contrast to equities, and momentum persists even at 2- to 3-year horizons.

-Option momentum differs from stock momentum because the results are based on delta-hedged positions and remain robust after controlling for stock momentum effects.

-Momentum profits are unaffected by controls for implied versus historical volatility and other option characteristics, and remain significant after factor risk adjustments.

-The study shows that high historical-return options significantly outperform low-return options across multiple horizons, including when using out-of-the-money options or delta-hedged returns.

In short, like in equities, options also exhibit momentum. The options momentum is mean-reverting in the short term and trending in the long term.

Reference

[1] Heston, Steven L. and Jones, Christopher S. and Khorram, Mehdi and Li, Shuaiqi and Mo, Haitao, Option Momentum (2022), SSRN 4113680

Momentum in the Option Market, Intraday Case

While the previous article examines momentum in option returns across monthly horizons, Reference [2] extends this line of research by focusing on intraday option return dynamics.

Findings

-The paper documents novel seasonal patterns in intraday returns of individual stock option straddles.

-Despite being delta-neutral, straddle returns exhibit the same persistent intraday seasonality as their underlying stocks.

-Returns in a given half-hour interval predict returns in the same interval on the following trading day.

-This continuation effect is strongest at the market open and close, referred to as morning and afternoon momentum.

-Morning momentum is attributed to investors’ underreaction to volatility shocks.

-Afternoon momentum is driven by persistent inventory management behavior by option market makers.

In summary, it was shown that a straddle’s return during a particular 30-minute trading interval today positively predicts its return during the same interval on subsequent days. Morning momentum reflects a continued under-reaction to overnight volatility news. Afternoon momentum, on the other hand, is attributed to persistent price pressure caused by inventory management from option market makers.

Reference

[2] Da, Zhi and Goyenko, Ruslan and Zhang, Chengyu, Intraday Option Return: A Tale of Two Momentum (2024), SSRN 5018430

Closing Thoughts

Taken together, these studies show that option markets exhibit systematic return patterns across both monthly and intraday horizons. Momentum persists over 6 to 36 months without the long-run reversals observed in equities, while intraday straddle returns display predictable continuation at the market open and close.

The evidence suggests that option return dynamics are driven by distinct forces, including behavioral underreaction, inventory management by market makers, and structural features of volatility trading. Collectively, these findings reinforce the view that options are not merely derivatives of stocks, but markets with their own persistent and economically meaningful return patterns.

Source Here: Do Options Exhibit Momentum?

Machine Learning for Derivative Pricing and Crash Prediction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 10:40:36 -0000

Applications of machine learning in finance continue to evolve rapidly. In previous posts, we discussed both the uses and the challenges of applying machine learning in financial markets. In this installment, we continue that discussion by highlighting new research on machine learning approaches for pricing complex derivatives and identifying signals that may precede major market downturns.

Speeding Up Derivatives Pricing Using Machine Learning

A financial derivative is a contract whose value depends on the price of an underlying asset such as a stock, bond, commodity, or index. Accurate valuation of financial derivatives and their associated sensitivity factors is important for both investment and hedging purposes. However, many complex derivatives exhibit path-dependency and early-exercise features, which means that closed-form solutions rarely exist, and numerical methods must be used.

The issue with numerical methods is that they are often slow. As a result, efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of numerical techniques for valuing financial derivatives. Reference [1] proposed a fast valuation method based on machine learning. It developed a hybrid two-stage valuation framework that applies a machine learning algorithm to highly accurate derivative valuations incorporating full volatility surfaces. The volatility surface is parameterized, and a Gaussian Process Regressor (GPR) is trained to learn the nonlinear mapping from the complete set of pricing inputs directly to the valuation outputs. Once trained, the GPR delivers near-instantaneous valuation results.

Findings

-The study develops a machine learning framework for pricing derivative products whose valuation depends on volatility surfaces.

-Volatility surfaces are parameterized using the five-parameter SVI model with a one-factor term structure adjustment to generate realistic synthetic market scenarios.

-High-accuracy valuations for variance swaps and American put options are computed using conventional numerical methods and used to create training and testing datasets.

-A Gaussian Process Regressor is trained to learn the nonlinear relationship between input risk factors, such as volatility surface parameters, strike, and interest rate, and valuation outputs including prices and Greeks.

-The trained model achieves high accuracy, with approximately 0.5% relative error for variance swap fair strikes and 1.7–3.5% relative error for American put prices and first-order Greeks.

-The model is less accurate for the Gamma Greek due to discontinuities in the strike dimension.

-After training, the machine learning model produces valuations almost instantly, achieving a speed improvement of three to four orders of magnitude compared with traditional numerical methods.

-The results demonstrate that machine learning can enable real-time risk analytics, dynamic hedging, and large-scale scenario analysis for derivatives.

-The framework is general and can be extended to other path-dependent derivatives with early exercise features.

In summary, the authors developed an efficient method to price complex financial derivatives using a machine learning technique. However, it is noted that GPR’s performance in valuing higher-order greeks is noticeably less accurate. Additionally, the study was conducted using synthetic data, so it would be useful to see the method applied to real-world scenarios.

Reference

[1] Lijie Ding, Egang Lu, Kin Cheung, Fast Derivative Valuation from Volatility Surfaces using Machine Learning, arXiv:2505.22957

Forecasting Market Crashes with Machine Learning Techniques

Reference [2] examines how machine learning can be used to predict market crashes within the Adaptive Market Hypothesis framework.

The study considers three categories of factors:

Internal factors, such as technical indicators designed to capture endogenous market dynamics, including momentum, trend strength, and money flow arising from investor behavior and adaptive learning;
External factors, including macroeconomic and commodity variables that proxy for systematic, exogenous risks affecting fundamental valuations; and
Volatility features that quantify market fear and uncertainty.

The author evaluates the performance of three predictive models—logistic regression, random forest, and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network.

Findings

-While the Efficient Market Hypothesis suggests crashes cannot be predicted, the Adaptive Market Hypothesis allows for temporary periods of predictability as market conditions evolve.

-The analysis compares a traditional econometric model, Logistic Regression, with machine learning approaches, including Random Forest and LSTM.

-The models use a feature set combining technical, macroeconomic, and volatility-based indicators.

-Model performance is evaluated using metrics designed for imbalanced classification problems, where crash events are rare but economically significant.

-Empirical results show that the LSTM provides the best balance between precision and recall, although Logistic Regression remains competitive.

-The findings highlight that simpler models can still perform effectively, supporting the value of model parsimony in turbulent market environments.

-The results also support the Adaptive Market Hypothesis by showing that market predictability evolves over time and depends on changing conditions.

-Logistic Regression performs well as an early-warning system due to its high recall, although it generates many false positives.

-The LSTM model improves precision while maintaining strong recall, suggesting that capturing temporal patterns in financial data enhances predictive performance.

-Overall, the study concludes that market crashes are not entirely random, but their prediction depends on the appropriate balance between model complexity and practical application.

In short, the study concludes that market crashes are difficult to forecast but not entirely random, and different models capture different aspects of predictability. Logistic regression functions well as a high-recall early warning tool, while LSTM models provide more balanced signals.

Reference

[2] Michele Della Mura, Predicting Stock Market Crashes, A Comparative Analysis of Econometric and Machine Learning Models, Politecnico di Torino, 2025

Closing Thoughts

Taken together, these studies illustrate the expanding role of machine learning in modern quantitative finance. One line of research demonstrates how machine learning models can dramatically accelerate the pricing of complex derivatives while maintaining high accuracy, enabling real-time risk management and large-scale scenario analysis. Another line of work explores the ability of both traditional econometric methods and advanced machine learning models to identify signals that may precede market crashes. Collectively, these findings show that machine learning is reshaping financial modeling, though simpler approaches can still play a meaningful role.

Original Post Here: Machine Learning for Derivative Pricing and Crash Prediction