The Greatest Trader Of All Time (Jim Simons, The Quant Godfather)
Jim Simons is one of the most successful hedge fund managers in history. He is a mathematician and the founder of Renaissance Technologies. His hedge fund specializes in system trading using statistical analysis of historical price data. Back in the day Jim would literally go to the world bank to get price quotes as far back in history as possible. Now this method can be done with a click of a button utilizing AI technology. The most amazing thing Jim did was see the path no one else dared to walk. He looked at the market as an equation.
The market has repeated xyz trading patter 1000 times over the last 15 years and when an edge was found he would exploit it to the max. Really quite simple when you think about it. A lot of traders do this process now with technical analysis and magical strategies they find on google. Except they actually don’t know if it has ever worked before.
Jim Simon did the exact opposite at Renaissance Technologies and is the reason he credits his fund to having the best performance in history. “Since 1988, his flagship Medallion fund has generated average annual returns of 66% before charging hefty investor fees—39% after fees—racking up trading gains of more than $100 billion. No one in the investment world comes close. Warren Buffett, George Soros, Peter Lynch, Steve Cohen, and Ray Dalio all fall short.” – ‘The Man Who Solved the Market ‘by Gregory Zuckerman 2019. Jim Simons was a mathematics professor from 1968 to 1978, and his net worth is currently approximately $23.5 billion.
