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  • Published: 5 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241981344
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

The Man Who Solved the Market

How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019




The first and fascinating look into the mind of Jim Simons, the shy billionaire who revolutionized Wall Street

Jim Simons is the greatest moneymaker in modern financial history. His record bests those of legendary investors, including Warren Buffett, George Soros and Ray Dalio. Yet Simons and his strategies are shrouded in mystery. The financial industry has long craved a look inside Simons's secretive hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies and veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman delivers the goods.

After a legendary career as a mathematician and a stint breaking Soviet codes, Simons set out to conquer financial markets with a radical approach. Simons hired physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists - most of whom knew little about finance - to amass piles of data and build algorithms hunting for the deeply hidden patterns in global markets. Experts scoffed, but Simons and his colleagues became some of the richest in the world, their strategy of creating mathematical models and crunching data embraced by almost every industry. Simons and his team used their wealth to upend the worlds of politics, philanthropy and science. They weren't prepared for the backlash.

In this fast-paced narrative, Zuckerman examines how Simons launched a quantitative revolution on Wall Street, and reveals the impact that Simons, the quiet billionaire king of the quants, has had on worlds well beyond finance.

  • Published: 5 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241981344
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

About the author

Gregory Zuckerman

Gregory Zuckerman is a senior writer at the Wall Street Journal where he pens the 'Heard on the Street' column. He appears on CNBC-TV twice a week to explain complex trades. His team has won the New York Press Club Journalism Award and the Gerald Loeb Award for their coverage of the credit crisis.

Also by Gregory Zuckerman

See all

Praise for The Man Who Solved the Market

So compelling, filled with so many fascinating characters and new information... The book reads more like a delicious page-turning novel... Destined to become an instant classic...my nominee for financial book of the year

Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg

A terrific book, a terrific read... I recommend it highly... It's a hell of a story

Lou Dobbs, Tonight, Fox News

Tells a surprisingly captivating story. It turns out that a firm like Renaissance, filled with nerdy academics trying to solve the market's secrets, is way more interesting than your typical greed-is-good hedge fund

Joe Nocera, New York Times

Gregory Zuckerman lifts the lid on the most fascinating man in financial markets...superb reporting

Robin Wigglesworth, 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

Zuckerman vividly tells the story of how Jim Simons and his team of scientists developed the most successful quantitative trading operation in history. . . . 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

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

The fascinating, page-turning tale of a complicated man and the movement he started, rendered in accessible prose and full of bravura storytelling

Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success

One of Inc.com's Top 20 Business and Leadership Books of the Year 2019

Inc.com

A compelling read

the Economist