Jim Simons has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Jim Simons has died

#11

Post by questinthrow » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #6

The reality is that most extremely wealthy people are very far on the right tail of intelligence. People exist that can predict the market, they are just very rare.

While mister Simons might not be the best example, I sometimes feel that you can easily beat the market if you are well connected and have access to information that can move the markets before anyone else. For example how much know-how do you need to beat the market if you're a US senator? You know before anyone else what's going to happen regarding policy and can plan accordingly. There were rumours about this even regarding Simons' Medallion fund. About how all the talk about math and algorithms was just a red herring to divert from the fact that it was mostly insider knowledge that did the heavy lifting. Alas these rumours were never confirmed as far as I know.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#12

Post by i13e » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

tromp wrote: post #7

The news item is blocked by many ad-blockers, including my Brave browser. Using Firefox I see the text: Simons Foundation Co-Founder, Mathematician and Investor Jim Simons Dies at 86 By Thomas Sumner May 10, 2024 Simons Foundation co-founder and chair emeritus Jim Simons. © Béatrice de Géa It is with great sadness that the Simons Foundation announces the death of its co-founder and chair emeritus, James Harris Simons…

At least for me, even with adblock turned off it still doesn't appear. Thank you for reposting!

Re: Jim Simons has died

#13

Post by markgall » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

Will be interesting to see how this affects math research. He has pumped unthinkable amounts of money into the field. The only first-class flights I've taken in my life were to get to Simons-funded conferences at super fancy hotels. (I found these conferences a bit ridiculous, but the luxury treatment did ensure that they could get together a lot of the biggest names in the field in one place.)

Besides the conferences, there is the SCGP at Stony Brook, the Simons Center in Manhattan, whatever MSRI is called now, AMS-Simons travel grants, tons of money for the arXiv, the Magma license deal... and that's just the stuff that I've benefited from personally. I know there's more, Simons Collaboration grants and probably other things I've never heard of. He was very good to us all.

We've always joked that Phds in geometry-adjacent fields have to have one of the highest average incomes of any degree, probably at least $1 million a year. Simons making $3 billion, the rest of us making 90k apiece.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#14

Post by choilive » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:11 PM UTC

questinthrow wrote: post #11

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #6

The reality is that most extremely wealthy people are very far on the right tail of intelligence. People exist that can predict the market, they are just very rare.

While mister Simons might not be the best example, I sometimes feel that you can easily beat the market if you are well connected and have access to information that can move the markets before anyone else. For example how much know-how do you need to beat the market if you're a US senator? You know before anyone else what's going to happen regarding policy and can plan accordingly. There were rumours about this even…

"There are 3 ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter or cheat" - Margin Call

Re: Jim Simons has died

#15

Post by mehulashah » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:11 PM UTC

This person made a lot of money, so it’s easy to say that he’s part of the machine. But, the man had principles. And he stood by them. Grateful for him showing us the way.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#16

Post by mushufasa » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:13 PM UTC

Last month an amazing biographical podcast came out describing his personal journey to starting rentech, and the factors that make the business so competitive.

Certainly worth a listen https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/renaissance-technologies

Re: Jim Simons has died

#17

Post by ilrwbwrkhv » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:13 PM UTC

Really sad. I looked up to him. Trying to achieve brilliance in a field and then gathering a brilliant team and making money and then giving back is a great way to live.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#18

Post by filoleg » Fri, May 10, 2024, 4:14 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #10

Sadly I've never been able to snag an interview with RenTech (and I've applied like a dozen times), but they're the ones that actually made me start taking finance a lot more seriously. Maybe if I ever finish my PhD they'll hire me. I had previously thought of HFT and Quant as a bunch of "finance bros", and kind of dismissed it as "not real CS" [1]. Reading about RenTech and Jim Simons made realize that there's actua…

His whole RenTech story was fascinating.

Effectively an outsider in finance who gathered a bunch of other outsiders (aka big mathematicians), and decided to start a hedge fund that takes zero interest in the actual companies and trades solely on math. Which makes sense, since none of the main people involved in its creation had any corporate or finance experience, but tons of math experience and knowledge.

This is oversimplifying it like crazy, but I recommend anyone to anyone with even a passing curiosity for this look up the details (or read “The Man Who Solved The Market”, which is documenting the beginnings and growth of RenTech, as well as that of Simons; very enjoyable read).