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The cover of The Man Who Solved the Market

The Man Who Solved the Market

Gregory Zuckerman, 2019

Follow Jim Simons and the scientists behind Medallion through failed models, cleaned data, engineering fixes, market crises, and the limits of a remarkable trading record.

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9 parts, about 22 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Follow how a former code breaker recruited scientists to build a trading system, from early failures to many small repeated edges
  • See why a model can pass tests yet fail live, through execution costs, stale inputs and a momentum rule that stopped working
  • Learn how a shared model, pooled pay and a cap on fund size shaped the firm, and what its record cannot prove

Who it is for

  • Readers curious how quantitative investing really works in practice
  • Researchers and engineers building models that must work outside the lab
  • Investors weighing claims about systematic, computer driven trading

What the summary covers

  1. The Problem Behind the Record2 min
  2. Learning to Search for Signals2 min
  3. Failure Before the Formula3 min
  4. A Small Edge, Repeated3 min
  5. Engineering a Firm, Not Just a Signal2 min
  6. The Stock Problem2 min
  7. When the Model Met Its Limits3 min
  8. Two Funds, Two Outcomes2 min
  9. What the Success Could and Could Not Prove3 min

Recommended by

  • Edward O. ThorpAuthor of A Man for All Markets
    Immensely enjoyable.
  • Mohamed A. El ErianAuthor of The Only Game in Town
    An extremely well-written and engaging book . . . a must read, and a fun one at that.
  • James GrantGrant's Interest Rate Observer
    Leave it to the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Zuckerman to lay open the golden mysteries of quantitative investing. With this fine, humane, and eye-opening book, he’s well and truly broken the code.
  • Gary ShteyngartAuthor of Lake Success
    Page-turning tale…bravura storytelling.
  • Barry RitholtzWriter at Bloomberg
    Reads like a delicious page-turning novel.

About the author

  • Gregory ZuckermanSpecial writer at The Wall Street Journal and author of books on finance
    • He was born on September 7, 1966.
    • He grew up in Rhode Island and graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University in 1988.
    • He began as managing editor of the newsletter Mergers and Acquisitions Report, then wrote about media companies for the New York Post before joining The Wall Street Journal in 1996.
    • He is a special writer at The Wall Street Journal and a three time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism.
    • In 2015 he won a Loeb Award for stories on the discord at the bond firm Pimco that led to Bill Gross leaving it.
    • In 2012 he broke the news of the huge losses on trades by the J.P. Morgan trader nicknamed the London Whale.
    • His book The Greatest Trade Ever, on the investor John Paulson, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller.
    • His reporting has covered Wall Street trades, the fracking boom and the development of COVID 19 vaccines; his 2021 book A Shot to Save the World followed this one.

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