Wall Street is large, and there are many types of firms there. Technology is a lot more important in a lot of Wall Street firms now than they used to, and, at the hedge fund I used to work at, programmers were the first class citizens and made many of the large decisions. The startup type is the perfect fit for these places - they want people who, with little management, can make innovative tools from scratch that will earn the place millions of dollars. And they pay a lot of money for this kind of person.
