The Man Who Solved the Market

How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution

By: Gregory Zuckerman

Narrated by: Will Damron

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

The perfect gift for the avid reader on your list: the unbelievable story of a secretive mathematician who pioneered the era of the algorithm--and made $23 billion doing it.

Jim Simons is the greatest money maker in modern financial history. No other investor--Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, or George Soros--can touch his record. Since 1988, Renaissance's signature Medallion fund has generated average annual returns of 66 percent. The firm has earned profits of more than $100 billion; Simons is worth twenty-three billion dollars.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Simons and dozens of current and former employees, Zuckerman, a veteran Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, tells the gripping story of how a world-class mathematician and former code breaker mastered the market. Simons pioneered a data-driven, algorithmic approach that's sweeping the world.

As Renaissance became a market force, its executives began influencing the world beyond finance. Simons became a major figure in scientific research, education, and liberal politics. Senior executive Robert Mercer is more responsible than anyone else for the Trump presidency, placing Steve Bannon in the campaign and funding Trump's victorious 2016 effort. Mercer also impacted the campaign behind Brexit.

The Man Who Solved the Market is a portrait of a modern-day Midas who remade markets in his own image, but failed to anticipate how his success would impact his firm and his country. It's also a story of what Simons's revolution means for the rest of us.

*Includes a PDF of Appendices 1 and 2 with charts

Critic reviews

“Captivating.” —New York Times

“A compelling read.” —The Economist

“Reads like a delicious page-turning novel.” —Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg

“One of the most important stories of our time.” —Financial Times

“Zuckerman brings the reader so close to the firm’s inner workings that you can almost catch a whiff of the billionaire’s Merit cigarette.” —Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg

“A gripping biography of investment game changer Jim Simons… readers looking to understand how the economy got where it is should eat this up.” —Publishers Weekly

"Worthwhile reading for budding plutocrats and numerate investors alike." —Kirkus

“Immensely enjoyable.” —Edward O. Thorp, author of A Man for All Markets

“An extremely well-written and engaging book . . . a must read, and a fun one at that.” —Mohamed A. El-Erian, author of The Only Game in Town

“Leave it to the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Zuckerman to lay open the golden mysteries of quantitative investing. With this fine, humane, and eye-opening book, he’s well and truly broken the code.” —James Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

"Page-turning tale…bravura storytelling." —Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success

good background book...but

on the surface, ts a book about a smart man that likes making and keeping money. The book does not explain or detail any secrets of Renaissance, it skirts the surface at that.

Overall i did enjoy the book but was very put off when the book left trad g and started to talk about Trump, and the elections, the books reads like its a crime to support Republicans. That was a putoff for me.

Interesting

It is interesting although I would rather it focused on the thing they created rather than the politics they bought with it

Excellent book! Great read

Thoroughly fun, interesting story. The political angle at the end seemed forced, and for that I removed a star.

Other than that, 👍

Best Book of 2020

I rarely gift books, but gifted this to a bunch of my friends as it is by far the best autobiography I have read in a long while.

Really enjoyed it

I really enjoyed listening to the story, I just wish to know more about the technical aspects though never disclosed by the owners.