ken griffin, billionaire, has a lucrative money machine, more so than you might think. check: let's get a quick on the major averages here at and,of the federal reserve perhaps, more importantly, a sense of where it might be headed. saudi aramco trading for the first time today, up 10% on the day. broadise you are seeing markets trading sideways ahead of the action. a couple of stocks getting attention, including home depot down on the forecast. boeing trading on news that the planes might be grounded longer than some had hoped. loomingts are still over the markets and we have a wait and see approach for most of them. otherwise, sideways. a quick check on the pound, here is one that could well be influenced by events, but we have seen a continued rise in the pound ahead of the u.k. elections. as you can see, we continue to see strength as the day goes on. you can't blame investors for being on the sidelines this week. one place we are seeing a lot of activity is the average loan etf with figure b k l. this is after four straight days totalings targeting -- $340 million.

ken griffin gets a lot of advantage from this.ts out, he generates a lot of financial return from it. would there be a way he could crystallize some of this value? is he looking to do that? reporter: it's been reported still- i think that is something that wouldn't be surprising if it happened in the past. it is a business that does make him a lot of money as is, so he doesn't necessarily need to sell a stake to earn profit from the business. the reality is he probably made even more from citadel securities. vonnie: it is a fascinating story. i would urge everyone to read it. it is all laid out in tom maloney's story. tom, thank you for joining. guy: let's get back to the u.k. election and talk about what the polls are saying. an exclusive poll conducted for bloomberg shows a large number of remainders are now wavering. they are not saying that they are undecided, but they are also not definitely decided. -- runs a nonpartisan polling and election site that pretty good the 2016 u.k. election. he joins us now on the phone. matt, wh

romaine: let's turn to billionaire ken griffin. have another money machine to rival pitch has found? they areecurities, much more lucrative than you might think. i am not sure anyone -- i don't know anyone who has dismissed citadel securities, but i guess a lot of folks may not give it its due. >> they are two separate entities. everyone knows ken griffin as the big hedge fund manager. eight years ago and they really started to try to get into traditional investment banking functions it did not really work out for them. romaine: that is still the same company? sonali: yes. now the market-making has been more successful for them. than manyt bigger people realized? joe: so what collect. in the beginning it didn't work. they had a number of false starts. what finally collect -- click for them where they were finally a serious player? sonali: they benefited from banks not being liquidity providers in markets and they have entered options trading markets flopped and equity markets and big ways come --. is made a lot of wealth by exploit

the buyer of that property is unknown opinion ken griffin is a little bit north of that he has a property he spent over $200 million assembly to build his dream home and a little north of that is mar-a-lago. pretty good neighborhood in case he has to borrow a kwup of sugar from his neighbors >> there's no accident this is happening in florida you have been itemizing how many times the high end real estate market like california and new york are suffering because of tax issues that's not the case in florida, is it? >> not at all. what's helped this market is the sense that prices are not going down what sort of stalled the luxury markets in new york and parts of california, is the sense that prices are going to go down further. the wealthy are sitting on the sidelines and waiting. in florida you have stable or even rising prices in palm beach. the buyers figure, it's not going to get any better for me that's why you have these two sales back to back in this one part of palm beach for over $100 million in six months. >> i know there are fewer chinese and russians coming to the u.s. and buyi

saltwater pool private restaurant once ken griffin went in wealthy follow each other.ey didn't have to do any marketing. part of the appeal was that it was so private and secretive only the really rich knew about it >> in terms of central park south is that the most desirable place in new york. has that always between place or only one of a handful of places that stand out >> price wise that u-shaped is the beach front of central park. >> pretty impressive thank you. >>> up next tackling the student debt crisis. new asset class is emerging for investors that could help students avoid taking out major loans. the details are ahead. >> box office buds disney's latest "star wars" film hitting theaters tonight we'll hit what at stake when close bell returns woman: friction points, those obstacles that limit a company's growth. i try to find companies that turn these challenges into opportunities. but by going out in the field, and meeting management, suppliers, competitors. in the end, it's these unique companies with creative business models that will generate value for ou

when ken griffin bought this for 238 -- >> four floors >> 23,000 square feet.id that, all the other billionaires or semibillionaires felt like they could follow. it becomes the it building and they all rush in it's the one building defying gravity in new york city >> fascinating >>> two wall street democrats pick their horse for the 2020 election on the tasting menu, a raging bull on microsoft. a warning abt urho ouyo pne - [narrator] at southern new hampshire university, we're committed to making college more affordable. that's why we're keeping our tuition the same through the year 2021. - [woman] i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. - [narrator] find your degree at snhu.edu. >>> welcome back 2020 democratic front-runner, yes he's still the front-runner according to many poll, joe biden, locking in some serious wall street funding with less than two months to go until the first votes are cast cnbc.com says the billionaire hedge fund martin lazarr and james efron or opening to biden after backing kamala harris. harris goes out. bi

citadel is privately held firm, majority-owned by ken griffin., he's really -- and remember, he earned $870 million from his hedge fund alone last year. people forget it is a massive part of his empire. people knew the scale, one out of every five trades in the u.s. now we are starting to put some numbers as to how big that operation really is. alix: huge numbers, which raises the question -- i am not going to ask if you are leaving to go butitadel, don't worry -- when you have huge flows of capital going to concentrated layers, where do you see it? sheila: in terms of the financial system, there's so much changing right now. you're seeing new entrants. you're seeing for banks in many ways. you are seeing banks try to reinvent themselves in a digital sense. i think that will be ongoing. but i think when you say the word bubble, it gets very particular to where you see people pushing to invest in this structural environment. whether it is talking about european banks or talking about investors, it is a low rate environment. it is making people do

that follows ken griffin's 238 million purchase of four floors of the building.bors include sting and his wife, paid 66 million for a penthouse. eric smith, a california hardware magnet paid 61 million for a five bedroom and brazilian cement heiress bought one for $30 million by the time the last units sell out, the building total expected to top $3 billion. what makes 220 so valuable it is right off central park, designed by robert stern, 82 foot saltwater pool, a basketball contract, gym, library, salon, screening room giant candy wall, private restaurant just for the residents that's run by the great john george. if you're not a billionaire, you can rent a three bedroom offered for $59,000 a month. >> a relative bargain. i would assume danny ock and griffin watched closely by tax authorities in new york, seeing how much time they spend there, given he has a residence in florida. >> in florida. we should say these prices, these buildings work in weird ways you sign the contract when the building starts, close when they're done these contracts were signed three

but the $230 million property -- >> 238 million >> is the monthly maintenance -- >> i don't think ken griffin we don't know but it's going to be like a private club these are -- it's not a great residential neighborhood by the way, this is sort of the sequel to 15 central park west where lloyd blankfein, dan lobe, denzel washington, it's the same designer and a lot of the people from that building are moving into this new building and it's, by the way, the only brand-new building that's right off central park so there won't be another building in front of you like all these other super towers on 57th >> right >> have this building right in front of it. so that's what makes it so valuable the rest of the market, though, not so great >> at 3 billion -- >> yes >> it's amazing. and none of these people are paying taxes here in the great city of new york >> yes, they are >> some of them. >> they're getting something out of it. >> we mentioned the brazilian. very few foreign buyers. steve roth wanted it to be a very new york filled building. >> is it a -- >> it's a condo. >> they wouldn't let forei

had three sales at $100 million or more this year we just had one in new york this year which was ken griffined three years ago. so it's a weird thing. california should be seeing a salt effect. but -- and they are sort of at the $10 to $50 million but they have seen these three big trades at the top. >> that suggests that money is still there. >> they're skipping new york and heading to california. especially the international buyer. >> why is that >> it's a good question. i think it thooz do with the density here as well as the weather. >> the lifestyle >> the lifestyle >> it's a much better lifestyle. >> new york, california. >> that's always been the case though >> we're seeing a lot of vertical living in california. they're overlooking l.a. it's been a huge success. >> more international in california is what i see the chinese, saudis are still buying there in a big way all the, you know, amir, qatar, new york just doesn't feel as welcome. broadly speaking, you know, the asset price inflation that we have seen which the wealthy feel and see more than any other group, i think they've gott