Finance & economics | Farewell to the GOAT

How Jim Simons revolutionised investing

The “quant king” pioneered an approach that has become a pillar of finance

Jim Simons, founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.
Photograph: Beatrice de Gea/The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine

Great investors are often known by a signature style. Warren Buffett made it big by investing in companies he thought cheap and holding on for many years. George Soros bet on macroeconomic events, at one point almost breaking the Bank of England. Jim Simons, who died on May 10th at the age of 86, was more mysterious. He plumbed the quantitative depths in often unexplainable ways.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The quant king”

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