#108 Jim Simons (Money Printer)

What I learned from reading The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman 

The story of the greatest moneymaker of all time [0:01]

Simons prefers to move in silence [1:40]

Unknown Unknowns > Known Knowns / Wise people always know exactly why something won’t work. That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. —Henry Ford [2:42]

A one word summary of the book: PERSISTENCE [4:15]

Simons’ early life / Only the arrogant are self-confident enough to push their creative ideas on others. —Nolan Bushnell [4:44]

Advice from his father: Do what you like in life, not what you feel you should do. [6:16]

Personality: Jim had a persistent and burning desire to be wealthy [7:20]

A seed has been planted + Jim’s existential crisis [9:55]

Lessons from codebreaking that Jim applies to his business later [14:08]

Jim Simons at 29 years of age: Fired, father of 3 young children, no idea what his future holds [20:00]

Jim Simons at 33 years of age: Genius and madness are next-door neighbors [21:44]

Jim Simons at 40 years of age: Jim finally makes the jump. Only misfits understand misfits [22:55]

Jim’s first trading style [28:00]

We all go through times like this: DON’T QUIT! [29:15]

Jim Simons at 44 years of age / Jim’s partner doesn’t see the point in developing automated trading system / Giant success followed by giants failures [34:30]

Back to being filled with self-doubt [37:15]

Our mind loves playing tricks on us [38:00]

Jim Simons studied the past to gain an information advantage [41:00]

Finally, the new strategy starts working! / Even with wild success people will tell you that you are wrong [46:55]

Business is like nature, it doesn’t care if you arrive at the right answer from the wrong reasoning. [52:50]

Emperors want empires [57:02]

Life advice from an 82 year old Jim Simons [1:02:40]

—

“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast