RIP: Jim Simons, pioneering quant investor
In the late 1970s, Simons abandoned a promising career as an academic mathematician to trade currencies, and built Renaissance Technologies into one of the most profitable investment shops of all time. Renaissance’s flagship Medallion fund — open only to Renaissance employees — averaged annual returns, after fees, of nearly 40% from 1988 to 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Gregory Zuckerman, who wrote a book about Simons entitled “The Man Who Solved the Market.”
In 1994, he and his wife founded the Simons Foundation, which is one of the largest charitable organizations in the US, and funds research in mathematics and science.
In 1994, he and his wife founded the Simons Foundation, which is one of the largest charitable organizations in the US, and funds research in mathematics and science.
