Part 0: Introduction

Fall 1990. Simons had spent 12 years searching for a successful investing formula. In 1989, his net returns were -4.0%. In 1988, he had netted 9.0%. In 1990, he netted 55.0% (77.8% before fees).

With Elywn Berlekamp, game theorist professor at UCB, Simons built a model for selecting idea trades based on data.

Berlekamp knew their approach was alchemic - no cash flows, interest rate forecasts, product research. Some of the trade recommendations didn’t make sense.