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Felix Bauckholt: The quant trader on an H1B visa killed by border police
23 January 2025
Who was Felix Bauckholt, the quant trader on an allegedly expired H1B visa who died after a shoot-out at the Vermont-Canada border this week?
Bauckholt's still live LinkedIn profile says he worked in the New York office of Tower Research Capital, the high frequency trading firm. Tower Research didn't respond to a request to comment on Bauckholt's recent employment status, but the alleged expiry of his visa suggests he may no longer have been working there.
Tower Research Capital is a high frequency market maker and prop trading firm that operates high speed trading strategies. US government data suggests that two people at Tower Research have had H1B visas renewed this year: a head of data on a base salary of $350k and a quant trader on a base salary of $165k. It has 1,200 employees in total.
Bauckholt's LinkedIn profile says he joined Tower in October 2021 after two years at Radix Trading. He also completed a Jane Street internship in 2018. Jane Street interns now earn around $20k a month.
Bauckholt graduated from Canada's university of Waterloo with a bachelor's in mathematics. In 2014 and 2015 he appears to have won gold and bronze prizes respectively in the International Mathematics Olympiad.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Bauckholt was with a female passenger who initiated the border shooting, and that he fired at border agents himself. A report in the Vermont Daily Chronicle says that David Maland, a border agent, was also killed.
Equally unconfirmed reports suggest that Bauckholt was transgender and used the name Ophelia.
The shooting comes amidst renewed debate about the role of H1B visas. Elon Musk is a fan of H1B visas, which he says are the reason that he and other "critical people" are in the US. President Trump has a history of denigrating H1B visas, but seems to have softened that position.
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https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/felix-bauckholt
LinkedIn · Max Zhang
6 reactions · 1 day ago
Felix Bauckholt, a brilliant German tech talent, lost his life due to a tragic incident at the Vermont-Canada border, spotlighting the …
jessicat
@jessi_cata
Oh no. I know this person. Went by "Ophelia" (transfeminine). Was involved with rationalist discourse. Was somewhat of a Ziz fan. Oh no.
https://theorg.com/org/tower-research-capital/org-chart/felix-bauckholt
jessicat
@jessi_cata
Jan 22
'''I remember warning Ophelia that Zizians were a death cult with a high local death rate…
Idk if this involved Ziz or associates but… well, Bayesian evidence (lefty radical violence + violent women).'''
https://x.com/jessi_cata/status/1882184499334947024
https://t.co/wEVEzXu11D
https://x.com/jessi_cata/status/1882182975804363141
Celene Nightingale
@toasterlighting
https://gofundme.com/f/remembering-curtis-lind-forcibly-taken-from-us-too-soon
https://t.co/UoQaJttWPQ
Apparently this also happened recently? The landlord involved in the katana stabbing incident
https://x.com/toasterlighting/status/1882860477782593975
Vallejo see first homicide of 2025
https://t.co/z8wfPkpMBR
https://x.com/jessi_cata/status/1882861561418748065
Celene Nightingale
@toasterlighting
@ohabryka looks like the Zizians are Doing Things again, a friend of mine suggested that lighthaven might be a potential target, not sure what security you havelooks like the Zizians are Doing Things again, a friend of mine suggested that lighthaven might be a potential target, not sure what security you have
https://x.com/toasterlighting/status/1882860907719745962
Suspect in Killing of Border Patrol Agent was German Citizen with Expired H1-B Visa
https://t.co/ZHuy60ysuw
Zizians
https://t.co/R11mDNjLxY
https://t.co/rMbN7nu5ah
Ophelia @asphaltmealith
https://x.com/river_captn/status/1882186311869829302
https://x.com/cag/status/1882402772072727016