#87: Gregory Zuckerman | The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution

In this episode of the Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric
Schleien sits down with WSJ Veteran Reporter, Gregory Zuckerman,
to discuss his book "The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim
Simons Launched The Quant Revolution"


 
Editorial Reviews

“Leave it to the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Zuckerman to lay
open the golden mysteries of quantitative investing. With this
fine, humane, and eye-opening book, he’s well and truly broken
the code.” —James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
“Captivating.” —New York Times   “A compelling read.” —The
Economist   “Reads like a delicious page-turning novel.”
—Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg   “One of the most important
stories of our time.” —Financial Times   “Zuckerman brings the
reader so close to the firm’s inner workings that you can almost
catch a whiff of the billionaire’s Merit cigarette.” —Brandon
Kochkodin, Bloomberg “A gripping biography of investment game
changer Jim Simons… readers looking to understand how the economy
got where it is should eat this up.” —Publishers Weekly
"Worthwhile reading for budding plutocrats and numerate investors
alike." —Kirkus “Immensely enjoyable.” —Edward O. Thorp,
author of A Man for All Markets   “An extremely
well-written and engaging book . . . a must read, and a fun one at
that.” —Mohamed A. El-Erian, author of The Only Game in Town
"Page-turning tale…bravura storytelling." —Gary Shteyngart,
author of Lake Success About The Book

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business
Book of the Year Award

The unbelievable story of a secretive mathematician who
pioneered the era of the algorithm--and made $23 billion doing
it.



 


The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant
Revolution": Summary


Jim Simons is the greatest money maker in modern financial
history. No other investor--Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray
Dalio, Steve Cohen, or George Soros--can touch his record. Since
1988, Renaissance's signature Medallion fund has generated
average annual returns of 66 percent. The firm has earned profits
of more than $100 billion; Simons is worth twenty-three billion
dollars. Drawing on unprecedented access to Simons and dozens of
current and former employees, Zuckerman, a veteran Wall Street
Journal investigative reporter, tells the gripping story of how a
world-class mathematician and former code breaker mastered the
market. Simons pioneered a data-driven, algorithmic approach
that's sweeping the world. As Renaissance became a market force,
its executives began influencing the world beyond finance. Simons
became a major figure in scientific research, education, and
liberal politics. Senior executive Robert Mercer is more
responsible than anyone else for the Trump presidency, placing
Steve Bannon in the campaign and funding Trump's victorious 2016
effort. Mercer also impacted the campaign behind Brexit. The Man
Who Solved the Market is a portrait of a modern-day Midas
who remade markets in his own image, but failed to anticipate how
his success would impact his firm and his country. It's also a
story of what Simons's revolution means for the rest of us.


 
About Gregory Zuckerman

Greg is a Special Writer at The Wall Street Journal, ​a 20-year
veteran of the paper and a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb
award — the highest honor in business journalism.


Greg is the author of “The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story
of the New Billionaire Wildcatters,” a national bestseller
published October 2014 by Portfolio/Penguin Press. The book
describes how several unlikely individuals created an American
energy renaissance that brought OPEC to its knees. The Frackers
was named among the best books of 2014 by The Financial Times and
Forbes Magazine and book of the year by the New York Financial
Writers Association.


Greg also wrote “The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes
Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial
History,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller
published December 2010 by Crown Business/Random House. The book
has been translated into 10 languages.


Greg and his two sons wrote Rising Above: How 11 Athletes
Overcame Challenges in their Youth to Become Stars,” a book for
young readers and adults published May 2016 by Philomel/Penguin
that describes the remarkable stories of how stars in various
sports overcame imposing setbacks in their youth. The book was
chosen by Scholastic Teacher magazine as a top pick for 2016 and
a top 2017 recommendation of the Texas Library Association. In
February 2018, Rising Above-Inspiring Women in Sports, also
written by Greg and his sons, will be published.


At the Journal, Greg writes about big financial firms,
personalities and trades, hedge funds, the energy revolution and
other investing and business topics. Previously, Greg was the
lead writer of the widely read “Heard on the Street” column and
covered the credit markets, among other beats.


In 2015, Greg won the Loeb Award for a series of stories
revealing discord between Bill Gross, founder of bond powerhouse
Pimco, and others at the firm, including Mohamed El-Erian. The
stories led to Mr. Gross’s surprise departure from Pimco. In
2012, Greg broke news about huge, disastrous trades by the J.P.
Morgan trader nicknamed the “London Whale.”


In 2007, Greg was part of a team that won the Gerald Loeb award
for breaking news coverage of the collapse of hedge fund Amaranth
Advisors and in 2003 he won the Loeb award for breaking news
coverage of the demise of telecom provider WorldCom. Greg was
part of a team that won the New York Press Club Journalism award
in 2008. He was a finalist for the 2011 Gerald Loeb award for
investigative news coverage of the insider trading scandal and a
finalist for the 2008 Gerald Loeb award for coverage of the
mortgage meltdown.


Greg appears regularly on CNBC, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance,
Bloomberg Television and various television networks. He makes
regular appearances on National Public Radio, BBC, ABC Radio,
Bloomberg Radio and radio stations around the globe.


Greg gives speeches to business groups on a variety of topics.
Over the past year, he has spoken to groups in New York, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix,
Calgary, Montreal and Niagara Falls.


Greg joined the Journal in 1996 after writing about media
companies for the New York Post. Previously, he was the managing
editor of Mergers & Acquisitions Report, a newsletter
published by Investment Dealers’ Digest. He graduated from
Brandeis University in 1988, Magna Cum Laude.


A graduate of Brandeis University, Greg lives with his wife and
two sons in West Orange, N.J., where they enjoy the Yankees in
the summer, root for the Giants in the fall, and reminisce about
Linsanity in the winter.


 
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