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In this episode hosts Mary Spencer and Dan Mikulskis and guest Rory Sturrock review the book “The Man who Solved the Market” by Greg Zuckerman. It tells the biographical/investigative story of mathematician Jim Simons and the legendary hedge fund Renaissance Technologies that has probably the best investment track record ever.

What stood out? 

• Behavioural themes still came into it despite the commitment to quant
• Sometimes no-one understood the outputs of the model. But did they always trust it?
• Does there always need to be an explanation behind these quant factors
• The vital role of communication to end clients in investment, eg why they had a bad quarter
• What really motivated them? The theoretical challenge or making money
• The purism and mathematical, theoretical nature of the quant approach described in the book.
• Why Dan resisted this book for so long - was the story too simplistic and convenient?
• Why Renaissance still stands out despite so many others hiring smart people and pursuing similar strategies over the years
• Why did Renaissance survive where others failed? Luck?
• The similarities between the systems they used to trade markets and those used for speech recognition
• Are non-markets people well-placed to solve markets problems?
• But is it really right to present the markets as a “problem to be solved”
• How well did Greg Zuckerman do in explaining the technical side?

Useful links referred to in our podcast this week

• Animal Spirits podcast
• Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock
• Tiger King on Netflix
• Rory Sturrock on Linkedin

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Each LCP investment uncut podcast is for information and marketing purposes only and does not constitute any form of investment or financial advice or a financial promotion (under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000). All views expressed by the podcast hosts and guests are purely their own opinions and do not represent those of LCP, its clients or affiliates. Our podcast listeners should always seek independent financial or legal advice before making any financial or investment decisions. Please refer to the Legal Notices section on the LCP website for further information.​