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Jim Simons has died

simonsfoundation.org

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Re: Jim Simons has died

#261

Post by tombert »

buggythebug wrote: post #157
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…

Why would you think it was a bunch of "finance bros"? You can BS your way to the top in such things as Sales because raw intellect and mental ability is not required. The same can be said for many aspects of finance. But you can't just do HFT or Quant because you want to - you actually need skills. Same way I can't BS my way into designing a rocket - you either can or you can't.

Because I didn't know what they actually did, I assumed it was just another rebranding of the same seemingly-useless stuff that I associated with finance bros.

I mentioned in the very comment that you're replying to that I was wrong.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#262

Post by free_energy_min »

altruios wrote: post #83
mycologos wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the Simons empire has enough people who will keep executing his vision and stave off bureaucratic rot. Making money is one thing, but circulating so much of it back through math and science is a great legacy.

sadly, the trend for these sorts of things is to sour after the original founder leaves... There is an esoteric concept that has some dynamics that explain this phenomenon somewhat. Not to get to into the weeds (the origins of this concept are esoteric religious ideas - I mean this secularly, as it relates to business entities) but the concept is an 'egregore' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore#:~:text=An%20egreg…

Thanks for sharing this, super interesting!

Re: Jim Simons has died

#263

Post by tombert »

chronic640201 wrote: post #141
tombert wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is insane . Like, completely insane, shouldn't-be-possible insane. I guess the theoretical limit to how much money you could make in the market is "the sum of all volatility", but I wonder how realistically possible it would be to even dream of beating 62% yearly.

Mathematics can only take you so far. At the end of the day, people run the exchanges. Not math. The returns of modern HFT market makers are even higher. With their unfair “business” advantages such as PFOF, privileged dark pool and block trade access, and military internet infrastructure. Think 60%+, per year, at least. Over 10-20 years, of course.

That doesn't surprise me; doesn't Citadel keep the entire bid-ask spread for every transaction they facilitate? Presumably between that and arbitrage opportunities that pop up from option contracts alone, I have no doubt that market makers clean up pretty well.

They wouldn't hire me either!

Re: Jim Simons has died

#264

Post by pfd1986 »

altruios wrote: post #83
mycologos wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the Simons empire has enough people who will keep executing his vision and stave off bureaucratic rot. Making money is one thing, but circulating so much of it back through math and science is a great legacy.

sadly, the trend for these sorts of things is to sour after the original founder leaves... There is an esoteric concept that has some dynamics that explain this phenomenon somewhat. Not to get to into the weeds (the origins of this concept are esoteric religious ideas - I mean this secularly, as it relates to business entities) but the concept is an 'egregore' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore#:~:text=An%20egreg…

Interesting concept. Would love to learn more if you can think of a reference

Re: Jim Simons has died

#265

Post by pfd1986 »

pfd1986 wrote: post #264
altruios wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sadly, the trend for these sorts of things is to sour after the original founder leaves... There is an esoteric concept that has some dynamics that explain this phenomenon somewhat. Not to get to into the weeds (the origins of this concept are esoteric religious ideas - I mean this secularly, as it relates to business entities) but the concept is an 'egregore' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore#:~:text=An%20egreg…

Interesting concept. Would love to learn more if you can think of a reference

Edit: Claude for the rescue

"Here are some additional sources that discuss the concept of an egregore and how it can be applied to understanding group dynamics and the evolution of organizations:

"The Anatomy of the Body of God" by Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) - A detailed exposition on the occult concept of egregores from a ceremonial magic perspective.

"Web of Debt" by Ellen Hodgson Brown - This book discusses egregores in the context of economic systems and the power of collective beliefs shaping institutions.

"The Egregore Effect" by Jack Willis - Explores egregores as self-reinforcing memetic constructs that shape group behavior.

"The Cult of Information" by Theodore Roszak - While not directly about egregores, it discusses how ideologies and worldviews can take on a life of their own within organizations.

"The Organizational Hologram" by David Bohm - Applies concepts from quantum physics to understanding the undivided wholeness of organizations

Re: Jim Simons has died

#266

Post by gradschoolfail »

77pt77 wrote: post #251
rglover wrote: post #113

Sorry to hear this. RIP. “Be guided by beauty. I really mean that. Pretty much everything I’ve done has had an aesthetic component, at least to me. Now you might think ‘well, building a company that’s trading bonds, what’s so aesthetic about that?’ But, what’s aesthetic about it is doing it right. Getting the right kind of people, and approaching the problem, and doing it right […] it’s a beautiful thing to do someth…

This beauty talk really needs to think. With the current status of research it's clear humans have a very problematic relation with what most people think the term means. A new word should really be crafted to disambiguate.

I have a feeling that when academics or high status people talk about beauty they actually mean “surprising depth”, because I find that both terms as used by these people subconsciously encode a notion that hard work is required, something not fully appreciated by most humans.. (although Simons does tip his hat to that with his “be guided by”.) Anyways high status and academics tend to forget, due to early quality education, that appreciation of the sort of beauty that they refer to is not costfree.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#269

Post by vsnf »

belter wrote: post #76
infecto wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And RT has been around for about twice as long as Google. Has a headcount of around ~300.

We had leaks from even the NSA...But never from the RT fund.

From Wikipedia: “Employees: Classified (est. 30,000–40,000)”

Obviously the number of people working on the super secret stuff is smaller, not to mentioned each project has a compartmentalized staff, but keeping secrets at this size is going to be a tough ask. They seem to do a pretty good job, but we know they’re not infallible at it. I imagine RenTech at 1/100th the size would have a vastly easier time.

Re: Jim Simons has died

#270

Post by chirau »

you'd think Jim would get a black bar on this site.

What actually is the criteria? Or it just depends on how @dang is feeling.

Jim is a hero in science, data, computing and finance. What else did he need to do?

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