Always good to hear from the best hedge fund manager ever. A couple points from the video: - Obama is timid - High frequency trading is good - Don't wait for the 'secret' because he's not giving it up. - No right or wrong way to model, use any info you can. - Flash crash was no biggie, calm down. http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/01/james_simons_sp.html
yes, thank you for posting. His humility really comes through in his speech and q&a. he lists collaboration with other people as a strong point in building systems. for four years I worked in the building across from his manhattan offices. my office window overlooked the 800 third ave entrance. I would see his mercedes pull up, I wish I had a chance to meet him. one of the great money managers of our time, one that nassim taleb says he doesn't know how to explain his success...
Jim Simons is of course the epitome of a successful quant trader. But I disagree with his view that inflation is not something we should worry about. Simon points out that we grew our way out of the debts of World War II but there's a big difference between then and now. Back then America alone accounted for most of the world's manufacturing. Today there is little manufacturing that hasn't been outsourced and damn little to replace it. Unfixable deficits exist just about anywhere you look -- at the federal, state, and city level. While Jim Simons could see the value of his money halve and wouldn't feel it, I know plenty of people (including in my own family) who will be devastated by inflation.
I understand that this may be the stupidest question one could ever ask, but just what is it that these hordes of brilliant mathematicians at Renaissance do all day?
Research, Develop and execute all the different Models they have? Would seem he doesnt trade the market with just a small number of models like a lot of hedge funds do. 200 employees, only a third of who have Phds doesnt seem excessive for the amount of capital they manage.
I thought it was a little disingenuous of Jim Simons to complain about great math teachers going to google or goldman. I mean he employes about 100 phd's, what productive product are they producing, other than making money for the employee owned fund. He raided IBM's speech recognition department and the two former IBM scientists now head Rentec.
why would he complain about google snagging math teachers? By making information more easily accessible, google allows for the more efficient utilization of the factors of production in just about every industry. Hell, google's made math education way more accessible to the masses than an individual teacher could ever dream. There may be ethical privacy issues with google, but its certainly beneficial to economic growth. High frequency trading? Besides the liquidity argument (which is seriously overrated), what does it accomplish for society?