The Story of Jim Simons: The World’s Most Successful Investor

Renaissance Technologies has earned a reported 39% on average per year since 1988 and has made over $104 B of trading profits. Led by famous mathematician, Jim Simons, Renaissance technologies has risen from obscurity into the panoply of top fund managers.

Does Jim Simons deserve the crown as the best ever? We go through his life that led to the founding of Renaissance. We also compare Simons to other fund managers. Finally, we try to guess the secretive strategies of Renaissance Technologies.
Let us know in the comments what you think is the top firm of all time.

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[douglasschwab.]

Just recently I had an enormous equity cash out with profits exceeding 300% from my portfolio

[Wrong_Sport_Bo]

Huge amount of respect for Renaissance. However, the medallion fund is a day trading, short term fund. Comparing Ren Tech with Berkshire is comparing Apples n Oranges. Nevertheless, well done video. I really enjoyed history of Ren Tech and the genius behind it.

[davegustavo]

These businesses are complex in nature and basically consist of investors making biggest profit from proprietary firms that produce efficiency.

[pythontron]

This is Warren Buffet on the opposite side of the spectrum. Where Buffet’s investment principles are simply that of common sense: only invest in what you understand; don’t let opportunities pass you by, etc., this man was completely infatuated with predicting prices through complex math. Yet both are extraordinarily successful. I guess you can say they are both geniuses in their own rights.

[axel-]

Managing 700b$ and 10b$ is a big difference.

[lorenzod.]

In my opinion he is the best speculator of all time and Warren Buffett is the best investor of all time .

[Mossy]

I grew up with the kid of one of the Renaissance co-founders, great family and really genius people. A great example of people who truly strive to give back more than they've received from the world.

[garlicpress]

Just a note, it's also often known as the Black-Scholes-Merton model as well, the same Merton from LTCM.

[valentinstoyanov]

I would call him a trader, not an investor...

[Trader]

Jessie Livermore by far!! He made over 1 billion in 1 day. Made millions, lost it all, made it all back and lost it all again over and over then blew his brains out. Wild story. I just made a video on Jesse Livermore.
Any investor has to read his book. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

[makedollarsandsense]

This guy is a mastermind. What an inspiration to traders everywhere.

[npestrov]

Thank you so much, never heard about him, what a great story!

[kevinparsley]

AWSOME! its not just another video of that guy trying to sell a book!

[XtianCyrus]

Most Professional Traders and Fund Managers: you cant make money on trading using sophisticated technical analysis and automated trading
Jim Simons: Hold my beer....

[FinanceOptimum]

The GOAT of Hedge Funds!
They automated their data processing pipeline such that they are able to rapidly back test strategies. They also have arbitrage in the order book with market making (this was revealed in a suit between former employees). Also using basket options with Deutsche and Barclays saved them $6.8bn in taxes over a 15 year period. Overall Simons is just a genius.

[yacinebennaceur]

When you compare buffets investment strategies with Simons strategies, you are basically comparing an arithmetic model and a geometric model. Simon is arithmetic buffet is geometric because of the compound interest. At the end Buffet will always win because of compound interest. It provides his fund exponential growth, which substitutes the performance.

[phenylethylamine]

It's unfair to compare BH or Bridgewater with Renaissance. Renaissance's Medallion fund is smaller in size in comparison to others. It's much easier to keep high return rates when your fund is small. Keeping high returns becomes incredibly difficult as your fund gets bigger.

[josecarlosxyz]

if you are good on numbers, why waste your time with dull numbers for odd theories nobody will ever use? go for finance and prove yourself like he did.
most mathematicians are broken

[onee]

Guys like Warren Buffet or Ray Dalio do so bad, because they have billions to manage. Billionaires don't enter and exist positions on the same day. There was one on TV the other day and he said that they sold their position over 10 days. So, if you have less money you actually have more of an advantage, because you entering and exiting positions won't start to move the stock market into certain directions.

[julianbranker]

Buffet owns real companies, Renaissance owns nothing but short term paper trades. This alone separates the two as their strategies are not compatible and as such are not really comparable except on an annual return basis. I for one think yearly comparisons to the S&P 500 are a ridiculous bench mark. This overlooks the real nature of the stock market's power of compounding over time with minimal risk exposure. Like the video hate the underlying premise of the argument.