Jim Simons a Pioneer of Quantitative Trading Dies at Age 86
Jim Simons, a mathematician who became one of the most successful investors in modern financial history, has died at age 86.
A cutting-edge code breaker and geometer, Simons helped pioneer a revolution in trading, embracing a computer-oriented, quantitative style in the 1980s.
He and his team employed trading algorithms and artificial intelligence well before these tools became popular in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.
Simons became a political donor and an influential philanthropist in the worlds of science, health and education.
Simons, the son of a Boston shoe-factory executive, developed an early passion for mathematics and ignored the advice of the family physician
who urged him to steer clear of the field because he wouldn’t make a living. The warning proved misplaced.
Simons began his career as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
Simons became restless, though. He started businesses with friends and dabbled in trading. Friends and family detected a desire for wealth.