This hasn't been true for the past 20-30 years, or ever since the average trader switched from a Lacrosse player to a physics grad.

Been in the industry for 20 years and never seen nepotism on the trading floor.

I think you're overestimating the fraction of the wall street population that is on the algorithmic or technical side of the game compared to the traditional side that simply provides no value to their clients.

Wall Street isn't run by morons.

The quants own the trading floor.

The Yale crowd owns private equity and investment banking. Why? Because private equity and investment banking involve "literally talking to rich old white people" for a living.

Hence they hire the sons of the friends of said old white relics to powwow with them.

However, you can be absolutely sure that the quants pull in the big bucks.

Trading pays far more than investment banking.

This is true. It is simultaneously true that many of these people have excellent credentials from a signaling standpoint. e.g. Shaw loves their Rhodes Scholars