There are many worthwhile candidates on Wall Street for the Greatest Trade of All Time. There’s Jesse Livermore’s bet that the stock market would fall in 1929. He pocketed something like $100 million in profit, akin to $1.5 billion today. There is George Soros’ 1992 bet that the British pound would fall against a basket…
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Here are a few highlights from our conversation: I think of philanthropy as something that is not genetic, it is learned, and it was something that my dad reinforced pretty much from the time I was a kid. I’ve always had this view that success is not a straight line up. If you read the stories of…
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In 1987, while many of his classmates at Harvard were out partying and living the stereotypical college life, a student named Ken Griffin was already focused on building his future. The 19-year-old was busy developing the skills and laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a financial empire, amongst the largest such firms in…
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David Bailey does a good job of summarising Simons remarkable career. Simons’ background hardly suggested that he would one day lead one of the most successful, if not the most successful, quantitative hedge fund operation in the world. Born in 1938 to a Jewish family that operated a small shoe factory, Simons aspired very early…
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Although rumors of its performance have long circulated on Wall Street, the actual numbers are even more mind-blowing: From 1988 to 2018, Medallion returned 66.1% annually before fees. Net of fees, the gains were 39.1%. Estimated trading profits during those 30 years amounted to $104.5 billion. (About those fees: If the standard hedge…
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I used to think that those that ran hedge funds got rich because of their incredible returns. Then I heard about the 2 and 20 fee structure that most hedge funds charged. The typical hedge fund fee structure (historically) is 2% of assets under management and 20% of all positive returns. Therefore, if you gave…
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I got flicked an article from a few weeks ago from the AFR that was titled Brace for 5pc super fund returns and the cynic in me instantly assumed that the majority of funds were going to lift their returns to 5%. For some, this would mean doubling their long term rate of return which…
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The first time hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones met quant maven John Overdeck was over a greasy meal of cut-price pepperoni pizza. It was January 2001, and the two were dining at the Pizza Hut in Greenwich, Connecticut — “my Sunday evening go-to restaurant,” according to Jones — to discuss a business plan for…
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