Note – on 14 May 2017, Scott Christianson died from Blunt force injuries after the bannisters gave way at his house shortly after publishing an exposee on Robert Mercer for McClatchy news service.

“Christianson, 69, died from massive head trauma after falling down the back stairs of his home. His wife, Tamar Gordon, said the banister had given way.[…] Christianson had recently begun working for the investigative unit of the McClatchy news service. Just two weeks ago, he and his McClatchy colleague Greg Gordon published a comprehensive investigation on the ties between President Donald Trump and the hedge-fund mogul Robert Mercer.”.

There are (statitically) an unusually high number of unexpected deaths/murders/suicides connected with RenTech – see below.

KEY THEMES/RISK FACTORS

James Simons was briefly a cryptographer working with the US defence community before being fired for his anti-Vietnam war insubordination and speaking with the press. He made his money initially via an investment in Colombia, whose investors then continued into his Limroy fund, a pre-cursor to the Medallion funds. He recruited staff to the fund who didn’t work on wall street, and kept his back and middle office separate from his front office. This latter point can be a risk factor & first point is a risk factor if you have employees leave claiming you’ve asked them to obtain confidential information for trading…

was briefly a cryptographer working with the US defence community before being fired for his anti-Vietnam war insubordination and speaking with the press. He made his money initially via an investment in Colombia, whose investors then continued into his Limroy fund, a pre-cursor to the Medallion funds. He recruited staff to the fund who didn’t work on wall street, and kept his back and middle office separate from his front office. This latter point can be a risk factor & first point is a risk factor if you have employees leave claiming you’ve asked them to obtain confidential information for trading… 2 Russians left claiming what RenTec was asking them to do was to obtain confidential information and trade on it (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/time-revisit-rentecs-allegedly-illegal-dark-pool-limit-order-and-swap-transaction-strategies) . No journalist, regulator or oversight committee has actually got the actual answer of what was being asked of them – or Why RenTec continued to pursue them legally, and why Regulators didn’t ask why…

“Money has also threatened to destroy the family atmosphere. In 2001, Renaissance hired a Russian scientist who, like many of his peers, came west after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Alexander Belopolsky. Patterson was against bringing him aboard, he says, because he had recently worked on Wall Street, where he had job-hopped. His fears proved prescient. In 2003 he and another Russian, Pavel Volfbeyn, announced they were leaving for hedge fund Millennium Partners, where they’d negotiated healthy bonuses and the right to keep a large part of their own profits. Renaissance sued them and Millennium, worried the researchers would take the firm’s secrets with them. All parties later settled out of court.”

Also intriguing – what was the Russian equity power play…

“Around that time another of Renaissance’s Russian-born researchers, Alexey Kononenko, who received his Ph.D. from Penn State in 1997 and had also done a brief stint on Wall Street, was promoted within the equities group. Senior staffers ended up discussing Kononenko’s advancement during one of their regular dinners at Simons’s house. One person familiar with the situation says the scientists were just questioning why he had moved ahead of colleagues who had been there much longer, much the way an academic might complain about a younger colleague getting tenure. Other people with knowledge of the firm say Kononenko’s promotion was a significant event in Renaissance’s history and that the Russian had actually executed a power play.”

RenTec’s Russian Vimpelcom transaction has been flagged to me consistently as a problematic transaction. I would welcome feedback. Note Vimpelcom’s connections to all the key players in #TrumpRussia in the 2008 Alfa Bank bail-out sections I’ve included.

Russian transaction has been flagged to me consistently as a problematic transaction. I would welcome feedback. Note connections to all the key players in #TrumpRussia in the 2008 bail-out sections I’ve included. The 2 portfolio managers for Nova Fund LP – the fund closed by the FINRA breaches for failure to have adequate audibility of the trades, are not fired – they instead become Co-CEOs. This is odd. Simons looks like he takes the fall, leaving in 2009 after all the regulatory inspections, for their mistake. Normally you’d fire people who’d attracted that much regulatory attention. An interesting point, is that those 2 Russians were recruited around the same time Nova Fund was being established… (and note the back story on Millennium Partners LP by the way, among others – https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/33-8639.pdf)

In terms of just incredibly poor values

RenTec was considered by the IRS (see the GLAM) and one of its banks who read that memo to be trading illegally for tax purposes – a point I can’t see the IRS has resolved (and at a minimum, USD50m donated by Mercer/Simons in election season 2016, is likely a cheap tax deferal strategy based on the numbers here…)

was considered by the (see the GLAM) and one of its banks who read that memo to be trading illegally for tax purposes – a point I can’t see the has resolved (and at a minimum, USD50m donated by in election season 2016, is likely a cheap tax deferal strategy based on the numbers here…) By precis’ing one of the banks – using the bank to run an unregulated fund on their behalf – RenTec was avoiding the laws put in place to avoid having too much leverage in the financial system. This is an important rule – as when large Hedge Funds go bust, if there is too much leverage – the Bank, its depositors, and ultimately the Government take the risk. (See “The Naked Short Scam” below, which I think refers)

was avoiding the laws put in place to avoid having too much leverage in the financial system. This is an important rule – as when large Hedge Funds go bust, if there is too much leverage – the Bank, its depositors, and ultimately the Government take the risk. (See “The Naked Short Scam” below, which I think refers) The points about “journaling” and allocating trades from one client to another I find startling from a legal/regulatory point of view. ACCOUNTING & OTHER VIEWS WELCOME.

Other Issues:

Colombian business – Left out of modern articles in the genesis of James Simons fortune – the Colombian tile company, its investors (including Jimmy Meyer and Edmundo Esquenazi ) and the Limroy fund that they all participated in, as well as in Jimmy Meyer’s case – the Madoff affair…

Left out of modern articles in the genesis of James Simons fortune – the Colombian tile company, its investors (including and ) and the Limroy fund that they all participated in, as well as in Jimmy Meyer’s case – the Madoff affair… Madoff a number of senior RenTech partners ( Paul Broder , Chief Risk Officer, Henry Laufer, Chief Scientist, Nathanie , Nat Simons (son of Jim) and portfolio manager of Meritage Fund a sister fund of RenTech), were interviewed in the OIG report into the failure of the SEC to uncover the Madoff ponzie scheme here. What is particularly interesting is the extent of RenTech’s trading with Madoff was not pursued by the SEC – “Of course ALL of our trades are with Madoff as the principal – so our option positions are OTC with Madoff so he can choose to use any strike, and any total volume he chooses, but the risk must be covered somewhere if he is doing the trades at all?”

a number of senior RenTech partners ( , Chief Risk Officer, Chief Scientist, , (son of Jim) and portfolio manager of a sister fund of RenTech), were interviewed in the OIG report into the failure of the SEC to uncover the ponzie scheme here. What is particularly interesting is the extent of trading with Madoff was not pursued by the SEC – “Of course ALL of our trades are with Madoff as the principal – so our option positions are OTC with Madoff so he can choose to use any strike, and any total volume he chooses, but the risk must be covered somewhere if he is doing the trades at all?” The OIG report is generally favourable to RenTech especially on why they didn’t tell the SEC of their discovery. Indeed the OIG report is cited in Pickard’s litigation here, vs Legacy Capital and Khronos LLC . Particularly important points “ Legacy is a British Virgin Islands corporation that functioned as a single purpose vehicle to invest in BLMIS . (¶¶ 32–33.) Jimmy Mayer controlled Legacy’s BLMIS account, and his son, Rafael Mayer (“ Rafael ”), was an officer of Legacy. (¶ 33.) Khronos is a New York limited liability company co-founded by Rafael and David Mayer, both of whom serve as managing directors. (¶¶ 30–31.) Khronos provided accounting services to Legacy , and also acted as service providers to other funds that ultimately invested in Legacy, including Montpellier Resources Ltd . (“ Montpellier ”) Renaissance Technologies, LLC (“ Renaissance ”) is a New York hedge fund management company, and Meritage Fund Lt d. (“ Meritage ”) is an investment fund under its umbrella that invested in BLMIS through a swap agreement with HCH Capital Ltd . (“HCH”), one of Legacy’s predecessors. (¶¶ 1, 38–39.) Meritage’s investment activities were overseen by a committee (the “ Meritage Committee”), which included Paul Broder , Peter Brown , Henry Laufe r, Nathaniel Simons and James Simons . (¶ 40.) Rafael was also a member of the Meritage Committee.”

especially on why they didn’t tell the SEC of their discovery. Indeed the OIG report is cited in Pickard’s litigation here, vs and . Particularly important points “ is a British Virgin Islands corporation that functioned as a single purpose vehicle to invest in . (¶¶ 32–33.) controlled account, and his son, (“ ”), was an officer of Legacy. (¶ 33.) is a New York limited liability company co-founded by and both of whom serve as managing directors. (¶¶ 30–31.) provided accounting services to , and also acted as service providers to other funds that ultimately invested in Legacy, including . (“ ”) (“ ”) is a New York hedge fund management company, and d. (“ ”) is an investment fund under its umbrella that invested in through a swap agreement with . (“HCH”), one of Legacy’s predecessors. (¶¶ 1, 38–39.) investment activities were overseen by a committee (the “ Committee”), which included , , r, and . (¶ 40.) was also a member of the Committee.” Indeed the case is a particularly interesting read as is this one “Throughout their investment relationship with Madoff , the Mayers never conducted any independent, meaningful, or reasonable due diligence on their BLMIS investments. Rather, they created new vehicles into BLMIS to further enrich themselves. The Mayers also employed the services of companies they owned and/or controlled, such as Khronos and Khronos Capital Research (the “Khronos Defendants”), to service their BLMIS investments.”.

, the never conducted any independent, meaningful, or reasonable due diligence on their investments. Rather, they created new vehicles into to further enrich themselves. The also employed the services of companies they owned and/or controlled, such as and (the “Khronos Defendants”), to service their investments.”. What is most surprising, is that at no point did Renaissance Technologies mention to the SEC that Jimmy Meyer was one of Jim Simon’ s oldest friends per the MIT Technology Review “After he graduated from MIT in 1958, Jim Simons and his friends Jimmy Mayer ’58 and Joe Rosenshein ’57, PhD ’63, rode from Boston to Bogotá on motor scooters. The trip took seven weeks and required some creativity, given the travelers’ tight budget. “Mostly we camped out,” Simons recalls. But “ if it was a little town and it had a jail, we asked if we could sleep there, because we knew we’d be safe.” Frequently, the jailers agreed, allowing them to stay the night in a cell. By the time the group reached Costa Rica, they had run out of money and were “subsisting on bananas,” Simons says. Although Rosenshein stopped in Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, Simons and Mayer eventually reached Bogotá, where they were welcomed by Edmundo Esquenazi ’58 and spent the summer hanging out and playing croquet.”

was one of s oldest friends per the MIT Technology Review “After he graduated from MIT in 1958, and his friends ’58 and ’57, PhD ’63, rode from Boston to Bogotá on motor scooters. The trip took seven weeks and required some creativity, given the travelers’ tight budget. “Mostly we camped out,” Simons recalls. But “ By the time the group reached Costa Rica, they had run out of money and were “subsisting on bananas,” Simons says. Although stopped in Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, and eventually reached Bogotá, where they were welcomed by ’58 and spent the summer hanging out and playing croquet.” Early Deaths/Suicides/Murders – connected with RenTech:

– connected with RenTech: (1) Russian RenTech employee – Alexander Astashkevich, killed himself and his wife in 2006 – arguing amongst other things over money.

killed himself and his wife in 2006 – arguing amongst other things over money. (2) William Broeksmit – a Deutsche Bank employee who managed the RenTech basket options subject to the US IRS investigation was found hanged in 2014. Broeskmits emails explaining RenTech’s use of the trade were provided to US investigators prior to his death.

– a Deutsche Bank employee who managed the RenTech basket options subject to the US IRS investigation was found hanged in 2014. Broeskmits emails explaining RenTech’s use of the trade were provided to US investigators prior to his death. (3) James Simons has the misfortune of having 2 of 4 children die as adults in separate accidental deaths Paul Simons in 1996 run over by Car backing out of driveway, and Nicholas Simons in 2003 – drowned in Bali.

has the misfortune of having 2 of 4 children die as adults in separate accidental deaths Paul Simons in 1996 run over by Car backing out of driveway, and Nicholas Simons in 2003 – drowned in Bali. (4) A journalist for McClatchey died of blunt for injuries shortly after publishing his initial story on Robert Mercer http://m.timesunion.com/allwcm/article/Scott-Christianson-69-acclaimed-journalist-11149980.php#photo-12912333

died of blunt for injuries shortly after publishing his initial story on Robert Mercer http://m.timesunion.com/allwcm/article/Scott-Christianson-69-acclaimed-journalist-11149980.php#photo-12912333 Luck – Long Oil when Iraq invades Kuwait, Uniquely Avoids Bond Market rout in 1994, Avoids reputational risk of a number of Computerised trading model funds closing due to poor returns (including those run by Co-CEOs Brown & Mercer ).

– Long Oil when Iraq invades Kuwait, Uniquely Avoids Bond Market rout in 1994, Avoids reputational risk of a number of Computerised trading model funds closing due to poor returns (including those run by Co-CEOs & ). Russia – Its clear the hedge fund has strong links with Russia, both in terms of people and assets, and counterparties (Deutsche bank)

What I am still thinking about as a risk factor.

The main medallion fund charges 5% of assets under management and 40% of any profits made on that money (5 and 40), to its clients – who are the key owners – James Simons & Robert Mercer. The rate maybe 5–10 years back was 2 & 20, and it has dropped significantly in recent years. I can’t see a good reason why they would want to extract that much cash (which would attract various taxes along the line – and in essence convert what would otherwise be capital gain into income – though there are many caveats as to why that might not be the case given tax loopholes).

DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

25 April 1938 – James Simons born

– born 26 January 1941 – Barbara Simons born in Boston Massachusetts – grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Barbara_Simons

– born in Boston Massachusetts – grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Barbara_Simons 26 January 1943 – James Simons attends Barbara Simons second birthday party – Parents lived in same apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts

– attends second birthday party – Parents lived in same apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts 11 July 1946 – Robert Mercer is born

– is born Pre 1959 – James Simons description of his childhood – “When did you first get interested in math? Was there a singular moment, like Einstein and his compass, that turned you on to math? I was always interested in math, even when I was a very little kid. I don’t know what compass moment Einstein had, but there was rarely a doubt in my mind that I would do anything except mathematics. There was a brief period I thought I might like to be a Rabbi, but it fortunately came and went. When I went to MIT, that’s all I wanted to study, and that’s basically all I did study, except I took some literature courses which I enjoyed, but basically I just wanted to learn math and prove theorems. I liked to prove theorems”

– description of his childhood – “When did you first get interested in math? Was there a singular moment, like Einstein and his compass, that turned you on to math? I was always interested in math, even when I was a very little kid. I don’t know what compass moment Einstein had, but there was rarely a doubt in my mind that I would do anything except mathematics. There was a brief period I thought I might like to be a Rabbi, but it fortunately came and went. When I went to MIT, that’s all I wanted to study, and that’s basically all I did study, except I took some literature courses which I enjoyed, but basically I just wanted to learn math and prove theorems. I liked to prove theorems” Prior to Sept 1955 – James Simons is recruited to then rejected from Wesleyan: “ When he told his employers he hoped to attend MIT, “they thought it was the funniest thing.” Ultimately, Simons had no choice about it: After Wesleyan recruited, then rejected him, there was only MIT. “I was destined for this place,” he says. http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/16727-mathematics-common-sense-and-good-luck-my-life-and-careers

– When he told his employers he hoped to attend MIT, “they thought it was the funniest thing.” Ultimately, Simons had no choice about it: After Wesleyan recruited, then rejected him, there was only MIT. “I was destined for this place,” he says. http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/16727-mathematics-common-sense-and-good-luck-my-life-and-careers September 1955 – James Simons (aged 17) starts 4 year Bachelor’s degree at MIT (he finishes in 3 years).

– (aged 17) starts 4 year Bachelor’s degree at MIT (he finishes in 3 years). Before May 1958 – James Simons decides to become a Mathematician over a game of Poker: “The idea of a math career was “clinched” for Simons after a typical late night of poker and sandwiches with MIT classmates. At 1 a.m. in a Brookline restaurant, Simons saw MIT math legends Isadore Singer and Warren Ambrose “doing math over coffee and cigarettes,” which he “thought was the coolest thing.”http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/16727-mathematics-common-sense-and-good-luck-my-life-and-careers

– decides to become a Mathematician over a game of Poker: “The idea of a math career was “clinched” for after a typical late night of poker and sandwiches with MIT classmates. At 1 a.m. in a Brookline restaurant, saw MIT math legends and “doing math over coffee and cigarettes,” which he “thought was the coolest thing.”http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/16727-mathematics-common-sense-and-good-luck-my-life-and-careers Before May 1958 – James Simons meets Leo Guhart “As a largely friends-and-family affair, the partnership and its 26-company portfolio – running the gamut from biotechnology and burglar alarms to information security and water purification – have been shaped by personal ties, none more important than those between Simons and Guthart , who is also 66. These date back more than 40 years, to when Guthart was studying at Harvard University (where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, an MBA and a doctorate in business) while Simons was wrapping up his undergraduate studies in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-123700/http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/1025234/the-other-face-of-jim-simons.html%23/.WTfzYtLLfK5

– meets “As a largely friends-and-family affair, the partnership and its 26-company portfolio – running the gamut from biotechnology and burglar alarms to information security and water purification – have been shaped by personal ties, none more important than those between and , who is also 66. These date back more than 40 years, to when was studying at Harvard University (where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, an MBA and a doctorate in business) while was wrapping up his undergraduate studies in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-123700/http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/1025234/the-other-face-of-jim-simons.html%23/.WTfzYtLLfK5 May 1958 – James Simons completes his degree at MIT in 3 years

– completes his degree at MIT in 3 years Summer 1958 ( after May 1958 ) – James Simons & Colombian friends bike ride from Boston to Bogota. A Fundamental influence in his life: “In his personal life, Simons has not always stayed the course. Between degrees at MIT and Berkeley, Simons and some Colombian friends he had made at school undertook a motor scooter trip from Boston to Bogotá – his first trip out of the country. “It’s amazing that I returned intact, but I did,” he says. They rode through Mexico and Guatemala and Costa Rica on their Lambrettas, sometimes sleeping on the ground or even in the local jails of the little villages they passed through. “Everyone wanted to see the gringos who had done this crazy thing, so we were invited to all kinds of people’s houses,” he recalls. Some time after that scooter trip, the country became a catalyst for Simons’s business career when his friends there started manufacturing vinyl tile and plumbing, and he became an investor. Their company dovetailed with the construction boom in Colombia, and Simons profited from the association for many years to come.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-122653/https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2016-war-stories/world-s-smartest-billionaire-james-simons-cal-alumnus. “After he graduated from MIT in 1958, Jim Simons and his friends Jimmy Mayer ’58 and Joe Rosenshein ’57, PhD ’63, rode from Boston to Bogotá on motor scooters. The trip took seven weeks and required some creativity, given the travelers’ tight budget. “Mostly we camped out,” Simons recalls. But “if it was a little town and it had a jail, we asked if we could sleep there, because we knew we’d be safe.” Frequently, the jailers agreed, allowing them to stay the night in a cell. By the time the group reached Costa Rica, they had run out of money and were “subsisting on bananas,” Simons says. Although Rosenshein stopped in Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, Simons and Mayer eventually reached Bogotá, where they were welcomed by Edmundo Esquenaz i ’58 and spent the summer hanging out and playing croquet.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-122838/https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602561/the-polymath-philanthropist/

( ) – & Colombian friends bike ride from Boston to Bogota. A Fundamental influence in his life: “In his personal life, has not always stayed the course. Between degrees at MIT and Berkeley, and some Colombian friends he had made at school undertook a motor scooter trip from Boston to Bogotá – his first trip out of the country. “It’s amazing that I returned intact, but I did,” he says. They rode through Mexico and Guatemala and Costa Rica on their Lambrettas, sometimes sleeping on the ground or even in the local jails of the little villages they passed through. “Everyone wanted to see the gringos who had done this crazy thing, so we were invited to all kinds of people’s houses,” he recalls. Some time after that scooter trip, the country became a catalyst for business career when his friends there started manufacturing vinyl tile and plumbing, and he became an investor. Their company dovetailed with the construction boom in Colombia, and profited from the association for many years to come.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-122653/https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2016-war-stories/world-s-smartest-billionaire-james-simons-cal-alumnus. “After he graduated from MIT in 1958, and his friends ’58 and ’57, PhD ’63, rode from Boston to Bogotá on motor scooters. The trip took seven weeks and required some creativity, given the travelers’ tight budget. “Mostly we camped out,” recalls. But “if it was a little town and it had a jail, we asked if we could sleep there, because we knew we’d be safe.” Frequently, the jailers agreed, allowing them to stay the night in a cell. By the time the group reached Costa Rica, they had run out of money and were “subsisting on bananas,” Simons says. Although stopped in Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, and eventually reached Bogotá, where they were welcomed by i ’58 and spent the summer hanging out and playing croquet.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-122838/https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602561/the-polymath-philanthropist/ September 1958 – Barbara Simons (age 17) starts undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Wellesey

– starts undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Wellesey September 1958 – James Simons ( age 20 ) starts graduate studies at MIT

– ( ) starts graduate studies at MIT Between September 1958 and January 1959 – Barbara Simons moves to Boston and starts dating James Simons: “When we got there, my mother called the mother of the man I eventually married (and got divorced from). Our mothers had lived in the same apartment building together, and he had come to my second birthday party. Anyway, my mother called her, and they fixed us up, and we went out on a blind date. He was at MIT at the time. He was a first-year graduate student in mathematics; he’d done his undergraduate degree in three years – very bright person. We went out a little bit and didn’t hit it off too much, and we stopped seeing each other,”

– moves to Boston and starts dating James Simons: “When we got there, my mother called the mother of the man I eventually married (and got divorced from). Our mothers had lived in the same apartment building together, and he had come to my second birthday party. Anyway, my mother called her, and they fixed us up, and we went out on a blind date. He was at MIT at the time. He was a first-year graduate student in mathematics; he’d done his undergraduate degree in three years – very bright person. We went out a little bit and didn’t hit it off too much, and we stopped seeing each other,” After January 1959 – Barbara meets up again with James Simons when James is a 1st year Graduate Student – in her second semester of freshman year year switches dorms and boards with woman from Bogota, Colombia who was dating someone else from Colombia who was a good friend of Jims. Through them, she meets Jim, and after 4 nights of going out each night they decide to get married: “and then I ran into him again; but before we stopped seeing each other, he encouraged me to take this junior/senior math class. He said, “Oh, you should be taking analysis! You’ve done calculus; take analysis.” It took me a long time to get the hang of analysis. It was a struggle, but I got a B; it wasn’t disgraceful. But meanwhile, the other young women in the class were thinking that I was just this brain, because I was this little freshman taking a junior/senior math classes. Anyway, I ran into Jim again the beginning of my second semester, when I switched dorms. I ended up in a dorm where there was this woman from Bogota, Colombia whom I’d met earlier when I went out with Jim for a little bit. She was dating someone else from Colombia who was a good friend of Jim’s, and through them I ran into Jim, and we started going out again – and after four nights of going out every night, we decided to get married.”

– Barbara meets up again with James Simons when James is a 1st year Graduate Student – in her second semester of freshman year year switches dorms and boards with woman from Bogota, Colombia who was dating someone else from Colombia who was a good friend of Jims. Through them, she meets Jim, and after 4 nights of going out each night they decide to get married: “and then I ran into him again; but before we stopped seeing each other, he encouraged me to take this junior/senior math class. He said, “Oh, you should be taking analysis! You’ve done calculus; take analysis.” It took me a long time to get the hang of analysis. It was a struggle, but I got a B; it wasn’t disgraceful. But meanwhile, the other young women in the class were thinking that I was just this brain, because I was this little freshman taking a junior/senior math classes. Anyway, I ran into Jim again the beginning of my second semester, when I switched dorms. I ended up in a dorm where there was this woman from Bogota, Colombia whom I’d met earlier when I went out with Jim for a little bit. She was dating someone else from Colombia who was a good friend of Jim’s, and through them I ran into Jim, and we started going out again – and after four nights of going out every night, we decided to get married.” After April 1959 – Barbara and James Simons elope to Reno California to get Married: “I had just turned 18. That was really dumb! He wasn’t much older; he was 21. We decided to get married, and we got engaged a few months later, and we told our parents we wanted to get married. He was going to Berkeley the following year, so we wanted to get married and have me go out to Berkeley with him. My parents thought I was too young. So we eloped! Actually, we came to California first. My parents gave me permission to come to California. Transferring wasn’t easy, because my grades weren’t so terrific, but I came to California and started going to Cal as an undergrad, my sophomore year. At one point, one of us said “Let’s get married” and the other one said “Okay!” So we scraped together enough money to buy a round-trip bus ticket to Reno. And then, I think six weeks later, I got pregnant. It was actually after I got married, but I think a lot of people felt that it was a shotgun wedding!”

elope to to get Married: “I had just turned 18. That was really dumb! He wasn’t much older; he was 21. We decided to get married, and we got engaged a few months later, and we told our parents we wanted to get married. He was going to Berkeley the following year, so we wanted to get married and have me go out to Berkeley with him. My parents thought I was too young. So we eloped! Actually, we came to California first. My parents gave me permission to come to California. Transferring wasn’t easy, because my grades weren’t so terrific, but I came to California and started going to Cal as an undergrad, my sophomore year. At one point, one of us said “Let’s get married” and the other one said “Okay!” So we scraped together enough money to buy a round-trip bus ticket to Reno. And then, I think six weeks later, I got pregnant. It was actually after I got married, but I think a lot of people felt that it was a shotgun wedding!” September 1959 – James Simons starts at Berkeley

starts at Berkeley At the beginning of September 1959 – At the beginning of her sophomore year at Berkeley, Barbara and Jim eloped to Reno. A year later they had her their first child (Barbara was only 19). Source: the Princess at the Keyboard: Why Girls Should become Computer Scientists

– At the beginning of her sophomore year at Berkeley, Barbara and Jim eloped to Reno. A year later they had her their first child (Barbara was only 19). Source: the Princess at the Keyboard: Why Girls Should become Computer Scientists After September 1960 – James Simons meets Shiing-Shen Chern – a Chinese national – Chern becomes a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1961 and is elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. (Background – only in 1972 after the Shanghai Communiqué was issued by the United States and the People’s Republic of China on February 27, 1972, did the relationship between China and USA start to normalise, and American citizens were allowed to visit P.R.China.)

– meets a Chinese national – becomes a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1961 and is elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. (Background – only in 1972 after the Shanghai Communiqué was issued by the United States and the People’s Republic of China on February 27, 1972, did the relationship between China and USA start to normalise, and American citizens were allowed to visit P.R.China.) During 1960 – Elwyn Berlekamp becomes Co-op Student and Summer Employee Bell Telephone Laboratories -1960–63 https://math.berkeley.edu/~berlek/employment.html

becomes Co-op Student and Summer Employee Bell Telephone Laboratories -1960–63 https://math.berkeley.edu/~berlek/employment.html Before January 1960 – Barbara Simons gives birth to Liz Simons: “A year later they had her their first child (Barbara was only 19). – Source: The Princess at the Keyboard: Why Girls Should become Computer Scientists”

– gives birth to Liz Simons: “A year later they had her their first child (Barbara was only 19). – Source: The Princess at the Keyboard: Why Girls Should become Computer Scientists” During 1960's - development of Hidden Markov Models – “One common genomic analysis tool – the Hidden Markov Model – was invented for pattern recognition by defense institute code breakers in the 1960s, and Dr. Patterson is an expert in that technique. It can be used to predict the next letter in a sequence of English text garbled over a communications line, or to predict DNA regions that code for genes, and those that do not.”

development of Hidden Markov Models – “One common genomic analysis tool – the Hidden Markov Model – was invented for pattern recognition by defense institute code breakers in the 1960s, and is an expert in that technique. It can be used to predict the next letter in a sequence of English text garbled over a communications line, or to predict DNA regions that code for genes, and those that do not.” 1961/2 – James Simons also at MIT according to Barbara Simons: “He was at MIT ‘61-’62. Then he was thinking about this Colombia thing, but that didn’t work out, so he got a year’s position at Harvard”

– also at MIT according to Barbara Simons: “He was at MIT ‘61-’62. Then he was thinking about this Colombia thing, but that didn’t work out, so he got a year’s position at Harvard” 1961 – James Simons invests in Colombian floor tile and pipe company. Note – his Colombian co-investors later form his first fund. “In 1961, he and a few MIT classmates invested in a Colombian floor tile and pipe company http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf […]”Once, after driving to Bogotá, Colombia, on a motor scooter with a college friend, he persuaded his father to join him in an investment there.”

– invests in Colombian floor tile and pipe company. – his Colombian co-investors later form his first fund. “In 1961, he and a few MIT classmates invested in a Colombian floor tile and pipe company http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf […]”Once, after driving to Bogotá, Colombia, on a motor scooter with a college friend, he persuaded his father to join him in an investment there.” By May 1962 – James Simons receives his Ph.D / doctorate from Berkeley in 3 years aged 23 under supervision of Bertram Kostant . https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2016-war-stories/world-s-smartest-billionaire-james-simons-cal-alumnus

– receives his Ph.D / doctorate from Berkeley in 3 years aged 23 under supervision of . https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2016-war-stories/world-s-smartest-billionaire-james-simons-cal-alumnus Before 1962 – James Simons tries trading stocks and soybeans at Berkeley – “At Berkeley he tried his hand at trading, looking to invest about $5,000 in wedding gifts from his first marriage. He found that stocks bored him. “I went to a Merrill Lynch broker,” recalls Simons . “He said, ‘Try soybeans.’”

– tries trading stocks and soybeans at Berkeley – “At Berkeley he tried his hand at trading, looking to invest about $5,000 in wedding gifts from his first marriage. He found that stocks bored him. “I went to a Merrill Lynch broker,” recalls . “He said, ‘Try soybeans.’” 1964 – James Simons works at Institute for Defence Analyses (US DoD) at Princeton NJ – “This is not your average last-laugh story. Simons not only entered the prestigious university at the age of 17, in 1955, he finished the four-year program in three years before heading for UC Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1962 at the age of 23. A few years later, he was hired and then fired as a code cracker for the Pentagon’s secretive Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) at Princeton.”/ “Seeking adventure, he signed on in 1964 as a code breaker with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit research organization that performed work for the U.S. Department of Defense. Angered by a New York Times Magazine story that he thought overly optimistic about the military effort in Vietnam, Simons made comments to Newsweek that were critical of the war. After telling his boss about the interview, he says he was fired from IDA.”

– works at at Princeton NJ – “This is not your average last-laugh story. not only entered the prestigious university at the age of 17, in 1955, he finished the four-year program in three years before heading for UC Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1962 at the age of 23. A few years later, he was hired and then fired as a code cracker for the Pentagon’s secretive Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) at Princeton.”/ “Seeking adventure, he signed on in as a code breaker with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit research organization that performed work for the U.S. Department of Defense. Angered by a New York Times Magazine story that he thought overly optimistic about the military effort in Vietnam, Simons made comments to Newsweek that were critical of the war. After telling his boss about the interview, he says he was fired from IDA.” October 1967 – James Simons writes letter to NY Times criticising General Taylor’s Vietnam strategy: “” Simons began working at the Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analysis in part because they paid and allowed mathematicians and scientists to work on their own projects in their spare time. Although not overtly political, Simons was appalled when his uber-boss, General Maxwell Taylor , wrote a story for The New York Times Magazine in 1967 talking about how great things were going in Vietnam. “I thought it was a really stupid article, so I wrote The New York Times a letter saying not everyone who works for General Taylor agrees with his views, and I gave my views, which were different from those of General Taylor,”

– writes letter to NY Times criticising General Taylor’s Vietnam strategy: “” began working at the Pentagon’s Institute for Defense Analysis in part because they paid and allowed mathematicians and scientists to work on their own projects in their spare time. Although not overtly political, was appalled when his uber-boss, , wrote a story for The New York Times Magazine in 1967 talking about how great things were going in Vietnam. “I thought it was a really stupid article, so I wrote The New York Times a letter saying not everyone who works for General Taylor agrees with his views, and I gave my views, which were different from those of General Taylor,” Spring 1968 – James Simons is fired from Institute of Defence Analyses – “He was fired a few months later, in the spring of 1968 , for talking with a reporter about his antiwar views. He still marvels that Stony Brook was willing to make him a department chairman that year, when he was just 30.” / “ Simons says. “Nobody [at the IDA] said anything, but I was clearly on their watch list.” Shortly thereafter, a stringer from Newsweek paid him a call, looking for defense department employees who were opposed to the war. Simons told him that he was only working on his own stuff until the war was over, as a sort of passive protest. “That was sort of my policy, but I was exaggerating a little bit,” he says now. “I was kind of a wise guy.” He then told his boss what he had done, who in turn told Taylor, who in turn fired Simons. The 29-year-old math genius was stunned. “My title,” he told his boss, “is Permanent Member of the Institute of Defense Analysis . How can you fire me?” He was told, “The difference between a permanent member and a temporary member is that a temporary member has a contract.” Though Simons says his objections to the war were more rational than emotional, the Domino Theory “just seemed absurd to me, and there were all these kids getting killed,” he recalls. “Because I had a child and I was a little bit older, I wasn’t going to get drafted. It just seemed a rotten business, so I spoke out against it.” His daughter, Liz , who along with her brother Nat later went to Berkeley , remembers being in summer camp where all the other kids got candy from home. “ I was 10 and the Vietnam War was happening, and he and my mom sent me a whole bunch of peace necklaces, ” she says.

“He was fired a few months later, in the , for talking with a reporter about his antiwar views. He still marvels that Stony Brook was willing to make him a department chairman that year, when he was just 30.” / “ says. “Nobody [at the IDA] said anything, but I was clearly on their watch list.” Shortly thereafter, a stringer from Newsweek paid him a call, looking for defense department employees who were opposed to the war. told him that he was only working on his own stuff until the war was over, as a sort of passive protest. “That was sort of my policy, but I was exaggerating a little bit,” he says now. “I was kind of a wise guy.” He then told his boss what he had done, who in turn told Taylor, who in turn fired Simons. The 29-year-old math genius was stunned. “My title,” he told his boss, “is Permanent Member of the . How can you fire me?” He was told, “The difference between a permanent member and a temporary member is that a temporary member has a contract.” Though says his objections to the war were more rational than emotional, the Domino Theory “just seemed absurd to me, and there were all these kids getting killed,” he recalls. “Because I had a child and I was a little bit older, I wasn’t going to get drafted. It just seemed a rotten business, so I spoke out against it.” His daughter, , who along with her brother later went to , remembers being in summer camp where all the other kids got candy from home. “ ” she says. 1968 – Lalit Bahl joins IBM TJ Watson Research Centre – “ Bahl joined the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in 1968, working on several research projects in information and communication theory. In 1972 , he joined the newly formed Speech Recognition Group to work on algorithms for the automatic recognition of human speech. During the next few years, along with two colleagues, he pioneered the application of Markov Models to the problems of speech recognition. From 1979–1997, Bahl served as the Manager of the Speech Algorithms Group at IBM , which produced new and innovative algorithms for speech recognition. In 1991–92, he led a team at the IBM Science Center in Paris that developed a multinational speech recognition system.”

– joins – “ joined the in 1968, working on several research projects in information and communication theory. In , he joined the newly formed to work on algorithms for the automatic recognition of human speech. During the next few years, along with two colleagues, he pioneered the application of Markov Models to the problems of speech recognition. From 1979–1997, served as the Manager of the , which produced new and innovative algorithms for speech recognition. In he led a team at the in Paris that developed a multinational speech recognition system.” 1968 – James Simons becomes Chair of Math at Stony Brook University, New York . “In 1968 he was chair of the math department at Stony Brook University, where he created one of the top geometry centers in the world. While there, he and Shiing-Shen Chern , who was at Berkeley, published what is now known as the Chern-Simons Invariant, which later had a huge influence on theoretical physics”

– becomes Chair of Math at . “In 1968 he was chair of the math department at Stony Brook University, where he created one of the top geometry centers in the world. While there, he and , who was at Berkeley, published what is now known as the Invariant, which later had a huge influence on theoretical physics” Summer 1970 – Nick Patterson spends Summer in US – “In 1970 I spent most of the summer in the US, getting a good result in the US [Chess] open (9/12) ”

– spends Summer in US – “In 1970 I spent most of the summer in the US, getting a good result in the US [Chess] open (9/12) 1971 – IBM sets up Continuous Speech Recognition research task force – “The task force was put together in 1971 to study the matter. The group included John Cocke (inventor of RISC machines), Herman Goldstin e (right hand of von Neumann in research leading to ENIAC) and others. It recommended that a Continuous Speech Recognition group be established in the Research Division”

– sets up Continuous Speech Recognition research task force – “The task force was put together in 1971 to study the matter. The group included (inventor of RISC machines), e (right hand of in research leading to ENIAC) and others. It recommended that a group be established in the Research Division” 1971 – ARPA (later DARPA) sets up Speech Recognition project – “In 1971, parallel to the work of the IBM task force, ARPA established a project in Speech Understanding. I don’t know what led to that decision, but the main forces behind it were Allen Newell and J. C. R. Licklinde r. Funds were provided to Carnegie Mellon, Systems Development Corporation, Bolt Beranek & Newman , and probably SRI, Sperry-Univac, University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, and UCLA . Not all of these institutions were to field complete systems. For instance, Ohio, UCLA , and Berkeley provided consulting by linguists ( Peter Ladefoged, Vicky Fromkin, John Ohala, Michael O’Malley , and June Shoup ).”

– sets up Speech Recognition project – “In 1971, parallel to the work of the task force, established a project in Speech Understanding. I don’t know what led to that decision, but the main forces behind it were and r. Funds were provided to , and probably . Not all of these institutions were to field complete systems. For instance, , and provided consulting by linguists ( , and ).” 1972 – IBM sets up [larger] Continuous Speech Recognition group. “CSR group was started in early 1972 under the management of Joe Raviv . At the time IBM had a small speech group in one of its development laboratories in Raleigh, NC”/ “The staffing of the group was then completed by volunteers from the Computer Sciences Department: Lalit Bahl, Raimo Bakis, George Nagy , and others (later Jim and Janet Baker joined as well). But at the time only Bakis, Das, Dixon, and Tappert knew anything about speech. […] I phoned Joe Raviv (whom I knew as a colleague from my sabbatical at IBM in 1968 – 69) to ask if I could spend three months in his group in Yorktown Heights. His answer was “Certainly, the sooner you arrive the better. We are starting to work on speech recognition.” By the time I arrived to take up that summer job, Raviv was promoted to manager of the IBM Scientific Cente r in Haifa, and IBM was negotiating with Professor Jonathan Allen of MIT to take over the speech group. These negotiations were not successful, and several weeks later the job was offered to me. I requested Cornell to grant me a leave of absence; they did, and I joined IBM (the following year I asked for and got another year, but when I tried to carry out the same maneuver in 1974, I was turned down)”

– sets up [larger] Continuous Speech Recognition group. “CSR group was started in early 1972 under the management of . At the time had a small speech group in one of its development laboratories in Raleigh, NC”/ “The staffing of the group was then completed by volunteers from the Computer Sciences Department: , and others (later and joined as well). But at the time only and knew anything about speech. […] I phoned (whom I knew as a colleague from my sabbatical at IBM in 1968 – 69) to ask if I could spend three months in his group in Yorktown Heights. His answer was “Certainly, the sooner you arrive the better. We are starting to work on speech recognition.” By the time I arrived to take up that summer job, was promoted to manager of the r in Haifa, and was negotiating with of to take over the speech group. These negotiations were not successful, and several weeks later the job was offered to me. I requested to grant me a leave of absence; they did, and I joined (the following year I asked for and got another year, but when I tried to carry out the same maneuver in 1974, I was turned down)” Summer 1972 – Frederick Jelinek joins IBM Continuous Speech Recognition group and Robert Mercer joins group. “Towards the end of the summer I took over the direction of the group and received a gift from heaven: the freshly graduated physicist Robert Mercer , who in the spring accepted an IBM job in a group that was abolished before he arrived in September ”

– joins and joins group. “Towards the end of the summer I took over the direction of the group and received a gift from heaven: the freshly graduated physicist , who in the spring accepted an job ” September 1972 – Nick Patterson joins [ GCHQ ] UK government crypto-analytic team: “Thirty years ago, Nick Patterson worked in the secret halls of the Government Communications Headquarters , the code-breaking British agency that unscrambles intercepted messages and encrypts clandestine communications. He applied his brain to “the hardest problems the British had,” said Dr. Patterson , a mathematician. […] In September 1972 I started a new job and my first child was born. I had plenty to do, and just moved on in my life”

– joins [ ] UK government crypto-analytic team: “Thirty years ago, worked in the secret halls of the , the code-breaking British agency that unscrambles intercepted messages and encrypts clandestine communications. He applied his brain to “the hardest problems the British had,” said , a mathematician. […] In September 1972 I started a new job and my first child was born. I had plenty to do, and just moved on in my life” 1973 – James Simons sells Colombian tile company: “In 1973 the tile company got sold, and he turned the proceeds over to a mathematician he knew who was trading commodities. “In eight months he had multiplied my money by ten times,” says Simons .” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf

– sells Colombian tile company: “In 1973 the tile company got sold, and he turned the proceeds over to a mathematician he knew who was trading commodities. “In eight months he had multiplied my money by ten times,” says .” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf 1974 – James Simons organised a trading pool run by another mathematician.

– organised a trading pool run by another mathematician. Summer 1974 – Frederick Jelinek leaves IBM Continuous Speech Research Group.

– leaves IBM Continuous Speech Research Group. 1975 – Publication of Dragon System Paper – Baker 1975 – Hidden Markov models – “the Dragon System ( Baker 1975) implemented by the Bakers , graduate students at CMU . It used Hidden Markov models (HMMs) whereas the rest of the ARPA participants based their work on templates, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), and hand-written rules. Baker , J. K. 1975. The dragon system: an overview. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ASSP-23(1):24 – 29.”

– Publication of Dragon System Paper – Baker 1975 – Hidden Markov models – “the Dragon System ( 1975) implemented by the , graduate students at . It used Hidden Markov models (HMMs) whereas the rest of the ARPA participants based their work on templates, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), and hand-written rules. , J. K. 1975. The dragon system: an overview. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ASSP-23(1):24 – 29.” 1975 – Bahl and Jelinek Speech Recognition paper: “ Bahl , L. R. and F. Jelinek . 1975. Decoding for channels with insertions, deletions, and substitutions with applications to speech recognition. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-21:404 – 411.”

– and Speech Recognition paper: “ , L. R. and F. . 1975. Decoding for channels with insertions, deletions, and substitutions with applications to speech recognition. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-21:404 – 411.” 1975 – Jelinek , Bahl , and Robert Mercer paper: “ Jelinek, F., L. R. Bahl, and R. L. Mercer . 1975. Design of a linguistic statistical decoder for the recognition of continuous speech. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-21:250 – 256.”

– , , and paper: “ . 1975. Design of a linguistic statistical decoder for the recognition of continuous speech. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-21:250 – 256.” 1975 – Jelinek paper on continuous speech recognition – “Jelinek, F. 1976. Continuous speech recognition by statistical methods. IEEE Proceedings, 64(4):532 – 556.”

– paper on continuous speech recognition – “Jelinek, F. 1976. Continuous speech recognition by statistical methods. IEEE Proceedings, 64(4):532 – 556.” June 1976 – Bahl and Robert Mercer paper: “ Bahl, L. R . and R. L. Mercer . 1976. Part of speech assignment by a statistical algorithm. In IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, pp. 88 – 89, Ronneby, June”

– and paper: “ . and . 1976. Part of speech assignment by a statistical algorithm. In IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, pp. 88 – 89, Ronneby, June” 1976 – James Simons leaves Stony Brook s tarts a fund which he works on part time 1976–1978: “He left Stony Brook in 1976, he said, because he had been struggling with an unsolved problem for two years and was restless. “Some money had come in from an investment,” [ NOTE – THIS IS THE SALE OF COLOMBIAN TILE COMPANY ] he said. “I invested that money, and it went very well. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ll try this.’ ” […] Simons began to make the transition out of academics, working half time at Stony Brook and trading currencies with his own money between 1976 and 1978"

– Stony Brook tarts a fund which he works on part time 1976–1978: “He left Stony Brook in 1976, he said, because he had been struggling with an unsolved problem for two years and was restless. “Some money had come in from an investment,” [ ] he said. “I invested that money, and it went very well. I thought, ‘Hey, I’ll try this.’ ” […] Simons began to make the transition out of academics, working half time at Stony Brook and trading currencies with his own money between 1976 and 1978" 1978 – At IBM , Frederick Jelinek starts natural language recognition using an IBM internal correspondence corpus [Note IBM was working with ARPA at this point] : “ 1978 (or so), we thought it was time to abandon artificial grammars and to start recognizing “natural” speech. We settled on a 5,000-word vocabulary and set ourselves the task of recognizing read sentences from an IBM internal correspondence corpus ”

– At , starts natural language recognition : “ 1978 (or so), we thought it was time to abandon artificial grammars and to start recognizing “natural” speech. We settled on a 5,000-word vocabulary and ” 1978 – James Simons creates Monemetrics and the Limroy Colombian fund a precursor to the Medallion Funds. Limroy Fund traded commodities and financial instruments on a discretionary basis and later branched into technical analysiis and venture capital – Strip-mall based – East Setauket Note : The firm primarily traded currencies at the start. It did not occur to Simons at first to apply mathematics to his business, but he gradually realized that it should be possible to make mathematical models of the data he was collecting./ “1978 he left Stony Brook completely, to form a private investment fund called Limroy . Initially , he took a fundamental approach, trying to predict factors like Federal Reserve Board policy and interest rate movements. Over the next ten years, Limroy grew initial capital 25 times by investing in everything from venture capital to technical currency trading ” htt p://ar chive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https ://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_ 2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf / “Simons started an early fund with his Colombian frie nds, with whom he’d been in business, and discovered again how he disliked the vagaries of the stock market. “When you’re a fundamental trader,” he says, “one day you come into the office and everything has gone your way overnight – Oh bo y, I’m a genius! And the next day you come in and everything has gone against you and it’s Oh, boy, I’m a dope. It’s kind of stomach-wrenching.” So he systematized his investments and turned to the world he had come from for his talent.”

– creates and the a precursor to the traded commodities and financial instruments on a discretionary basis and later branched into technical analysiis and venture capital – Strip-mall based – East Setauket : The firm primarily traded currencies at the start. It did not occur to Simons at first to apply mathematics to his business, but he gradually realized that it should be possible to make mathematical models of the data he was collecting./ “1978 he left completely, to form a private investment fund called . , ” htt chive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https 2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf / “Simons started an early fund with his Colombian frie y, I’m a genius! And the next day you come in and everything has gone against you and it’s Oh, boy, I’m a dope. It’s kind of stomach-wrenching.” So he systematized his investments and turned to the world he had come from for his talent.” 1979 – Lalit Bahl serves as Manager of the Speech Algorithms Group at IBM – “From 1979–1997, Bahl served as the Manager of the Speech Algorithms Group at IBM , which produced new and innovative algorithms for speech recognition.”

– serves as Manager of the – “From 1979–1997, served as the Manager of the at , which produced new and innovative algorithms for speech recognition.” 1979 – James Simons and Peter Yianilos found Proximity Technology – [ Note – links to Franklin Electronics 1984 onwards]: “Through another company, Simons had helped to develop new technology that would give Franklin a second life. In 1979 Simons and scientist Peter Yianilos , an expert in artificial intelligence and speech recognition, had founded Proximity Technology , a pioneer in hand-held electronic book technology and spell-check software. The technology was futuristic. “The first book cost $800 to produce” [ QUESTION – WHO BOUGHT THESE BOOKS AND WHY – WERE THEY AN EARLY TRADEABLE CURRENCY?]

– and found – [ – links to 1984 onwards]: “Through another company, had helped to develop new technology that would give Franklin a second life. In 1979 Simons and scientist , an expert in artificial intelligence and speech recognition, had founded , a pioneer in hand-held electronic book technology and spell-check software. The technology was futuristic. “The first book cost $800 to produce” [ – WHO BOUGHT THESE BOOKS AND WHY – WERE THEY AN EARLY TRADEABLE CURRENCY?] 1980 – Nick Patterson moves from UK to US – “In 1980, Dr. Patterson moved with his wife and children to Princeton, N.J., to join the Center for Communications Research , the cryptography branch of the Institute for Defense Analyses , a nonprofit research center financed by the Department of Defense . His work earned him a name in the cryptography circle. “You can probably pick out two or three people who’ve really stood out, and he’s one of them,” said Alan Richter , a longtime scientist at the defense institute […]” / “In 1980 I moved with my family to the United States. I had a new career to establish, and haven’t played tournament chess since. I still follow the game, and try and keep up with theory. I don’t in fact think I have lost all that much in strength, though without tournament testing that is very likely an illusion”

– moves from UK to US – “In 1980, moved with his wife and children to Princeton, N.J., to join the , the cryptography branch of the , a nonprofit research center financed by the . His work earned him a name in the cryptography circle. “You can probably pick out two or three people who’ve really stood out, and he’s one of them,” said , a longtime scientist at the defense institute […]” / “In 1980 I moved with my family to the United States. I had a new career to establish, and haven’t played tournament chess since. I still follow the game, and try and keep up with theory. I don’t in fact think I have lost all that much in strength, though without tournament testing that is very likely an illusion” 1980 – Italy - IBM researchers give academic course (CISM auspices) natural language recognition : “In 1980 we gave a course in Udine, Italy, organized by CISM (International Centre for Mechanical Sciences )”

– Italy - researchers give academic course (CISM auspices) natural language recognition : “In 1980 we gave a course in Udine, Italy, organized by )” 1981 – James Simons invests in Franklin Computer Corp : “But technology nowadays plays a prominent part in his U.S. portfolio. Simons got involved in the early personal computer, technology-gadgets and electronic-book markets through a 1981 investment in Franklin Computer Corp., which was founded that year as one of the original general purpose personal computer companies. But in 1984 the company filed for bankruptcy after being forced to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Apple Computer. It emerged from bankruptcy the following year under new management.”

– invests in : “But technology nowadays plays a prominent part in his U.S. portfolio. got involved in the early personal computer, technology-gadgets and electronic-book markets through a 1981 investment in which was founded that year as one of the original general purpose personal computer companies. But in 1984 the company filed for bankruptcy after being forced to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Apple Computer. It emerged from bankruptcy the following year under new management.” 1982 – James Simons sets up [ RenTec fund/changes name]. Note: RenTec was initially formed as an S-Corporation owned directly by a number of Employee Stockholders and their related trusts.

– sets up [ fund/changes name]. was initially formed as an S-Corporation owned directly by a number of Employee Stockholders and their related trusts. 1982 – Henry Laufer advises commodity trading portion of fund [ Question – had Henry Laufer run the earlier trading pool ?]

– advises commodity trading portion of fund [ ?] 1982–3 or 1985 Morgan Stanley starts quantitative pairs tradings – relevant to Robert Frey – “The genesis of Stat Arb can be traced from a quantitative trading strategy called “pairs trading”. And 25 years after its birth, this strategy, which exploits price discrepancies and correlation between a pair of stocks to buy and sell them and make money, still lies at the heart of Statistical Arbitrage. It is believed that the notion of pairs trading had been around for many years prior to 1980; apparently, Paul Wilmott has claimed that this trading idea was discovered at his shop in 1980. However, the formalization of the concept of pairs trading and its implementation as an acceptable quantitative trading strategy happened in Morgan Stanley in 1982–83. There is a bit of a debate over who exactly discovered pairs trading. Some, including Bookstaber, believe that it was Gerry Bamberger, who hit upon this idea while working at Morgan Stanley & Co. in the early eighties. Bamberger, a computer science graduate from Columbia University, left Morgan Stanley in 1985 and disappeared from Wall Street around 1987. Others believe that it was NunzioTartaglia, a brilliant quan trader, working with a small group of researchers at Morgan Stanley in 1985 that discovered pairs trading. Putting the debate to rest, let’s just say that it was Gerry Bamberger and NunzioTartaglia at Mogran Stanley who discovered pairs trading in early to mid-1980s. In the early 1980s Morgan Stanley was assembling a team of computer scientists and traders to work in an independent, ultra secretive group, which would exploit the discrepancies in the stock prices to generate abnormal profits. It would be a well-planned assault on the Efficient Market Hypothesis. One of the members of that team was a computer scientist from Stanford named David Shaw, who would later founded the legendary Wall Street investment firm D.E.Shaw& Co. Bamberger, Tartaglia and Shaw, all worked as a part of this ultra-secretive group that was in search of the Holy Grail of trading. Morgan Stanley’s black box was born in 1985 that would earn the firm a lot of money, and of course, bolster its reputation man on Wall Street. Even though the term Statistical Arbitrage would only come into prominence in the mid-1990s when Wall Street traders would embrace a plethora of complex and esoteric mathematical model to exploit market anomalies, with the introduction of Morgan Stanley’s pairs trading black box the war against the theory of Efficient Markets had begun. However, with the departure of David Shaw, Gerry Bamberger and many of other associates of Tartaglia, in the mid to late eighties this quant trading group at Morgan Stanley would fall apart in spirit, though traders would continue to use pairs trading on the firm’s trading floor. In 1993, the task of resuscitating the group would fall on the 29 year old Peter Muller, who would be hired by Derek Bandeen, a prop trader at Morgan Stanley. The group would be anointed with a new name, the Process Driven Trading (PDT), and Muller would recruit his own army of quants and computer programmers to work with him. Over the next decade, Muller’s PDT would make lots of money for the firm and establish Morgan Stanley as the leader in the field of Statistical Arbitrage.”

or starts quantitative pairs tradings – relevant to – “The genesis of Stat Arb can be traced from a quantitative trading strategy called “pairs trading”. And 25 years after its birth, this strategy, which exploits price discrepancies and correlation between a pair of stocks to buy and sell them and make money, still lies at the heart of Statistical Arbitrage. It is believed that the notion of pairs trading had been around for many years prior to 1980; apparently, Paul Wilmott has claimed that this trading idea was discovered at his shop in 1980. However, the formalization of the concept of pairs trading and its implementation as an acceptable quantitative trading strategy happened in Morgan Stanley in 1982–83. There is a bit of a debate over who exactly discovered pairs trading. Some, including Bookstaber, believe that it was Gerry Bamberger, who hit upon this idea while working at Morgan Stanley & Co. in the early eighties. Bamberger, a computer science graduate from Columbia University, left Morgan Stanley in 1985 and disappeared from Wall Street around 1987. Others believe that it was NunzioTartaglia, a brilliant quan trader, working with a small group of researchers at Morgan Stanley in 1985 that discovered pairs trading. Putting the debate to rest, let’s just say that it was Gerry Bamberger and NunzioTartaglia at Mogran Stanley who discovered pairs trading in early to mid-1980s. In the early 1980s Morgan Stanley was assembling a team of computer scientists and traders to work in an independent, ultra secretive group, which would exploit the discrepancies in the stock prices to generate abnormal profits. It would be a well-planned assault on the Efficient Market Hypothesis. One of the members of that team was a computer scientist from Stanford named David Shaw, who would later founded the legendary Wall Street investment firm D.E.Shaw& Co. Bamberger, Tartaglia and Shaw, all worked as a part of this ultra-secretive group that was in search of the Holy Grail of trading. Morgan Stanley’s black box was born in 1985 that would earn the firm a lot of money, and of course, bolster its reputation man on Wall Street. Even though the term Statistical Arbitrage would only come into prominence in the mid-1990s when Wall Street traders would embrace a plethora of complex and esoteric mathematical model to exploit market anomalies, with the introduction of Morgan Stanley’s pairs trading black box the war against the theory of Efficient Markets had begun. However, with the departure of David Shaw, Gerry Bamberger and many of other associates of Tartaglia, in the mid to late eighties this quant trading group at Morgan Stanley would fall apart in spirit, though traders would continue to use pairs trading on the firm’s trading floor. In 1993, the task of resuscitating the group would fall on the 29 year old Peter Muller, who would be hired by Derek Bandeen, a prop trader at Morgan Stanley. The group would be anointed with a new name, the Process Driven Trading (PDT), and Muller would recruit his own army of quants and computer programmers to work with him. Over the next decade, Muller’s PDT would make lots of money for the firm and establish Morgan Stanley as the leader in the field of Statistical Arbitrage.” 1983 – MIT holds two week course on natural language recognition

– MIT holds two week course on natural language recognition 1984 – IBM project success on real time performance continuous speech recognition: “Our ambition was to use a combination of IBM array processors to achieve essentially real-time performance. We fulfilled a promise to the management to achieve it by 1984" – see “we settled on a 5,000-word vocabulary and set ourselves the task of recognizing read sentences from an IBM internal correspondence corpus.” above.

– project success on real time performance continuous speech recognition: “Our ambition was to use a combination of IBM array processors to achieve essentially real-time performance. We a promise to the management to achieve it by 1984" – see “we settled on a 5,000-word vocabulary and set ourselves the task of recognizing read sentences from an IBM internal correspondence corpus.” above. 1984 - James Simons investment in Franklin Computer Corp fails: “But technology nowadays plays a prominent part in his U.S. portfolio. Simons got involved in the early personal computer, technology-gadgets and electronic-book markets through a 1981 investment in Franklin Computer Corp ., which was founded that year as one of the original general purpose personal computer companies. But in 1984 the company filed for bankruptcy after being forced to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Apple Computer . It emerged from bankruptcy the following year under new management”

- investment in fails: “But technology nowadays plays a prominent part in his U.S. portfolio. got involved in the early personal computer, technology-gadgets and electronic-book markets through a 1981 investment in ., which was founded that year as one of the original general purpose personal computer companies. But in the company . It emerged from bankruptcy the following year under new management” 1985 – DARPA initiates computational linguistics project – “Speech recognition “which within a few years became dominated by HMM approach”

– initiates computational linguistics project – “Speech recognition “which within a few years became dominated by HMM approach” Mid 1980's – Frederik Jalinek states he is having regular lunches and after lunch walks with Robert Mercer : “some of us started to wonder in the mid 1980s whether our ASR methods could be success- fully applied to new fields. Bob Mercer and I spent many of our after-lunch “periphery” walks discussing possible candidates . We soon came up with two: machine transla- tion and stock market modeling. It is probably only coincidence that Bob eventually ended up investigating the possibilities of stock value prediction”

– states he is having regular lunches and after lunch walks with : “some of us started to wonder in the mid 1980s whether our ASR methods could be success- fully applied to new fields. . We soon came up with two: machine transla- tion and stock market modeling. It is probably only coincidence that eventually ended up investigating the possibilities of stock value prediction” Mid 1980's - Robert Frey joins Morgan Stanley pairs trading team: “In the mid-1980s] Morgan Stanley had started doing pairs trading, one of the first [quant] trading strategies, and they were looking for someone to help with the math… They kept offering more money until I said yes.”

joins pairs trading team: “In the mid-1980s] had started doing pairs trading, one of the first [quant] trading strategies, and they were looking for someone to help with the math… They kept offering more money until I said yes.” Pre 1985 – Axcom Limited spun out of Monemetrics

– spun out of 1985 – Axcom becomes Trading advisor to [subfund of Monemetrics ]

– becomes Trading advisor to [subfund of ] 1985 – Ax Moves trading advisory company to Huntingdon Beach, California

– Moves trading advisory company to Huntingdon Beach, California 1985 – Franklin Computer Corp emerges from Bankruptcy ( James Simons is an investor)

– emerges from Bankruptcy ( 1986 – Della Pietra brothers got doctorate at Harvard: “ Della Pietra brothers – who reunited with their former IBM bosses to work on equities – were the first of many with that background. The identical twins, now 56, have never strayed far from each other: They took an honors science program at Columbia Universit y as high school students; attended Princeton as undergraduates, studying physics; and received doctorates from Harvard in 1986.”

– brothers got doctorate at Harvard: “ brothers – who reunited with to work on equities – were the first of many with that background. The identical twins, now 56, have never strayed far from each other: They took an honors science program at y as high school students; attended as undergraduates, studying physics; and received doctorates from in 1986.” 1986 – IBM Scientific Centre – Austria course on natural language recognition – “a course in Oberlech, Austria, organized by IBM Scientific Centers ”

– – Austria course on natural language recognition – “a course in Oberlech, Austria, organized by ” 25 September 1986 – Numar files Patent [QUESTION when did James Simons first invest?]

– files Patent [QUESTION when did first invest?] 31 December 1986 – Lord Jim Trust Created – James Simons Family Trust – Held by Bermuda Trust Company Limited [QUERY ANY COLOMBIAN MONEY TRUST SET UP AT SAME TIME? – Note 1988 Limroy fund wound up – see 1978… “for next 10 years…”]

– Created – – Held by 1987 – Slava Katz designed a back-off model (Katz 1987) relying on Good-Turing probability estimation: “Katz, S. 1987. Estimation of probabilities from sparse data for the language model component of a speech recognizer. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ASSP-35(3):400 – 401.”

– designed a back-off model (Katz 1987) relying on Good-Turing probability estimation: “Katz, S. 1987. Estimation of probabilities from sparse data for the language model component of a speech recognizer. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ASSP-35(3):400 – 401.” 1987 – University of Lancaster builds Treebank for Frederik Jalinek “ Professors Geoff Leach and Geoff Sampson ( Garside , Leech , and Sampson 1987). Because we wanted more of this annotation, we commissioned Lancaster in 1987 to create a treebank for us.”/ “Garside, R., G. Leech, and G. Sampson. 1987. Computational Analysis of English: A Corpus-Based Approach. Longman, London”

– builds Treebank for “ and ( , , and 1987). Because we wanted more of this annotation, we commissioned in 1987 to create a treebank for us.”/ “Garside, R., G. Leech, and G. Sampson. 1987. Computational Analysis of English: A Corpus-Based Approach. Longman, London” 1987 / Before 1 March 1988 – Coling research submission by Frederik Jalinek, Lalit Bahl, Peter Brown, Bob Mercer attend a small institute opposite New York Grand Central Station to learn French – Note “Semi-Fraudulent aspects of the operation” : “ The answer was French. Because we wanted the process to be data-centric, we searched for a pair of corpora F and E that would be translations of each other. Luck was with us: The Canadian parliament Hansards (proceedings) were maintained in English and French.5 So statistical language translation was born (Brown et al. 1990), and the descendants of our original methods are being continually improved. When we started, none of us spoke French, so we decided to learn it. We uncovered a small institute whose location was opposite New York Grand Central Station on 42nd Street. The institute advertised that it would teach French to anybody in two (!) weeks of intensive immersion. We didn’t believe it, of course, but because the costs and location were convenient, we started on our daily commute. I will not go into the semi- fraudulent aspects of the operation , but Lalit Bahl, Peter Brown, Bob Mercer, and I had a lot of fun and did advance considerably our knowledge of French”

/ Coling research submission by Frederik Jalinek, Lalit Bahl, Peter Brown, Bob Mercer attend a small institute opposite New York Grand Central Station to learn French – Note “Semi-Fraudulent aspects of the operation” : “ The answer was French. Because we wanted the process to be data-centric, we searched for a pair of corpora F and E that would be translations of each other. Luck was with us: The Canadian parliament Hansards (proceedings) were maintained in English and French.5 So statistical language translation was born (Brown et al. 1990), and the descendants of our original methods are being continually improved. When we started, none of us spoke French, so we decided to learn it. We uncovered a small institute whose location was opposite New York Grand Central Station on 42nd Street. The institute advertised that it would teach French to anybody in two (!) weeks of intensive immersion. We didn’t believe it, of course, but because the costs and location were convenient, we started on our daily commute. , but Lalit Bahl, Peter Brown, Bob Mercer, and I had a lot of fun and did advance considerably our knowledge of French” 1987 – [ links to “Semi-Fraudulent comment above ] Robert Mercer does PHD in Canada – Knowledge Representation, Logics for Reasoning, Natural Language Understanding – “Ph.D. The University of British Columbia , 1987. Professor, UWO, Knowledge Representation, Logics for Reasoning, Natural Language Understanding. In cognitive science and machine intelligence, it is sometimes useful to bring the techniques of one discipline to bear on another. In the study of natural language systems, for example, computer models and data structures have supported knowledge representation in terms of syntax, semantics and prag- matics. The cross-fertilising effect of paradigms is a favourite theme of Mercer’s . A special project in this area treats the thorny problem of generating the assumptions behind a speech act as a problem in knowledge representation. Default logic, originally developed to formalise various aspects of common sense reasoning, plays a role here. It might even lead to question-answering systems that work. The University of Western Ontario, Computer Science Department, Cognitive Engineering Laboratory, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7, (519) 661 2111 x86893 voice (519) 661 3515 fax, Email: mercer@csd.uwo.ca

– [ ] does PHD in Canada – Knowledge Representation, Logics for Reasoning, Natural Language Understanding – “Ph.D. The , 1987. Professor, UWO, Knowledge Representation, Logics for Reasoning, Natural Language Understanding. In cognitive science and machine intelligence, it is sometimes useful to bring the techniques of one discipline to bear on another. In the study of natural language systems, for example, computer models and data structures have supported knowledge representation in terms of syntax, semantics and prag- matics. The cross-fertilising effect of paradigms is a favourite theme of . A special project in this area treats the thorny problem of generating the assumptions behind a speech act as a problem in knowledge representation. Default logic, originally developed to formalise various aspects of common sense reasoning, plays a role here. It might even lead to question-answering systems that work. The University of Western Ontario, Computer Science Department, Cognitive Engineering Laboratory, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7, (519) 661 2111 x86893 voice (519) 661 3515 fax, Email: 1987 – DARPA starts US National Corpus under Charles Wayne : “in 1987 I arranged to visit Jack Schwartz , who was the boss of Charles Wayne at DARPA , and I explained to him what was needed and why. He immediately entrusted Charles with the creation of the appropriate organization”

– starts US National Corpus under : “in 1987 I arranged to visit , who was the boss of at , and I explained to him what was needed and why. He immediately entrusted with the creation of the appropriate organization” 1987 – Frederik Jalinek group starts to work on Machine Translation: “ we did start working on machine translation (MT) in 1987…This formula assumes translation from the foreign language4 F into English E – Footnote F originally stood for French ” – Note reports that Robert Mercer disappears at some point for several months to model French language – likely PHD.

– group starts to work on Machine Translation: “ ” – reports that disappears at some point for several months to model French language – likely PHD. During 1988 – Robert Frey starts Kepler Financial Management – James Simons is a partner. “I left in 1988 to start my own company, Kepler Financial Management . One of my investors was Jim Simons , who was running Renaissance , which then had about $100 million under management…I [joined] Renaissance and exchanged my KFM stock for Renaissance stock – smartest thing I ever did.”

– starts – James Simons is a partner. “I left in 1988 to start my own company, . One of my investors was , who was running , which then had about $100 million under management…I [joined] and exchanged my stock for stock – smartest thing I ever did.” During 1988 – at point in time James Simons invests in Kepler Financial Management – AUM of RenTech is USD100m

– at point in time invests in – AUM of is USD100m 5 January 1988 – Numar publishes patent on MRI scanning of oil wells – Relevant to James Simons – Inventors – Zvi Taicher , Shmuel Shtrikman, Zvi Paltiel, Mordechai Shporer

– publishes patent on MRI scanning of oil wells – Relevant to – Inventors – , 1988 – James Simons winds up Limroy (Colombian co-Investor fund) – “1978 he left Stony Brook completely, to form a private investment fund called Limroy. Initially, he took a fundamental approach, trying to predict factors like Federal Reserve Board policy and interest rate movements. Over the next ten years, Limroy grew initial capital 25 times by investing in everything from venture capital to technical currency trading” / “ In 1988 Simons decided to launch a fund that concentrated on pure trading. He shut Limroy andlaunched Medallion in March 1988. Concentrating on futures trading, the fund earned 8.8 percentin 1988 but lost money steadily in 1989 until Simons halted trading in June.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf

– winds up (Colombian co-Investor fund) – “1978 he left Stony Brook completely, to form a private investment fund called Limroy. Initially, he took a fundamental approach, trying to predict factors like Federal Reserve Board policy and interest rate movements. In 1988 Simons decided to launch a fund that concentrated on pure trading. He shut Limroy andlaunched Medallion in March 1988. Concentrating on futures trading, the fund earned 8.8 percentin 1988 but lost money steadily in 1989 until Simons halted trading in June.” http://archive.is/2017.06.07-185644/https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Teaching/BA453_2005/II_On_Jim_.pdf 1988 – Franklin buys Proximity from James Simons and Peter Yianllos “ Franklin bought Proximity in 1988, a year after Proximity had helped it develop the first blockbuster hand-held computer, a $69.95 spell-checker called Spelling Ace. Franklin’s shares jumped from from 21/8 to more than 10" [ Question – Was Proximity held by Limroy fund? ]

– buys from and “ bought in 1988, a year after had helped it develop the first blockbuster hand-held computer, a $69.95 spell-checker called Spelling Ace. shares jumped from from 21/8 to more than 10" [ ] Late 80's – James Simons invests in Numar Corp . “in the late 1980s, when Simons invested in Numar Corp ., a traditional oil services company, which had become a leader in applying magnetic resonance imaging technology to oil and gas exploration. Numar went public at 121/2 per share in April 1994 and was sold in 1997 to energy services and construction company Halliburton Co . Halliburton bought Numar for $430 million, making Simons ’ 900,000 shares of stock worth about $45 million, four times what they were worth at the time of the IPO”

– invests in . “in the late 1980s, when invested in ., a traditional oil services company, which had become a leader in applying magnetic resonance imaging technology to oil and gas exploration. went public at 121/2 per share in April 1994 and was sold in 1997 to energy services and construction company . bought for $430 million, making ’ 900,000 shares of stock worth about $45 million, four times what they were worth at the time of the IPO” 8 April 1988 – Diggle Investments Incorporated – Nigel Oake s PR company – Note Swiss Investor Link

– Incorporated – s PR company – Note Swiss Investor Link March 1988 – Fund renamed Medallion in favour of Medals won: “In 1988 Simons decided to launch a fund that concentrated on pure trading. He shut Limroy and launched Medallion in March 1988. Concentrating on futures trading, the fund earned 8.8 percent in 1988 but lost money steadily in 1989 until Simons halted trading in June ”

– Fund renamed in favour of Medals won: “In 1988 decided to launch a fund that concentrated on pure trading. He shut and launched in March 1988. ” 1988 – J ames Simons starts to develop Futures trading model

– J starts to develop Futures trading model Q3/Q4 1988 Medallion fund losses start mounting – From Financial World Article . 1996 “at the time Medallion was focussed on Momentum investing, Trading based on the assumption that price movements in a particular direction are likely to continue in the same direction – it took a relatively long term approach holding positions for around two weeks”

fund losses start mounting – From . 1996 “at the time was focussed on Momentum investing, Trading based on the assumption that price movements in a particular direction are likely to continue in the same direction – it took a relatively long term approach holding positions for around two weeks” During 1989 – Behavioural Dynamics set up – Note Diggle Investments Incorporated – “ Behavioural Dynamics , set up in 1989 by a Swiss consortium of businessmen , claims to deliver ‘competitive advantage to clients through the understanding, modification and control of human behaviour’. To this end, it employs a network of psychology professors from universities around the country, notably University College, London and Warwick University ”

– set up – Note Incorporated – “ , set up in 1989 , claims to deliver ‘competitive advantage to clients through the understanding, modification and control of human behaviour’. To this end, ” April 1989 30% peak to trough loss on Medallion fund. Mathematical model predicted but Simons closes down brings in 3rd party to unwind manage position. “He worked with Sandor Strau s, Jim Simons and another consultant, Henry Laufer , to overhaul Medallion’s trading system during a six-month stretch. […] Henry Laufer worked to build a new short term trading system based in part on compenents of the old trading strategy […] for six months Simons and former Princeton mathematician Henry Laufer, who is still Renaissance’s research chief, rebuilt Medallion’s trading strategy, shifting from fundamental analysis to the quantitative approach that powers the firm today . “We started to think about a whole new way to look at futures,” says Simons ”

30% peak to trough loss on Medallion fund. Mathematical model predicted but closes down brings in 3rd party to unwind manage position. “He worked with s, and another consultant, , to overhaul Medallion’s trading system during a six-month stretch. […] worked to build a new short term trading system based in part on compenents of the old trading strategy […] for six months and former Princeton mathematician who is still research chief, rebuilt trading strategy, . “We started to think about a whole new way to look at futures,” says ” June 1989 – Simons terminates trading on Medallion

– terminates trading on Medallion June 1989 Simons/Ax ‘lawyer-up’ over termination of trading mandate

‘lawyer-up’ over termination of trading mandate June 1989 – Ax assets = 2/3 of Medallion fund

– assets = 2/3 of fund June 1989 – Berlekamp Egypt Trip

– Egypt Trip June 1989 – Berlekamp buys out Ax 2/3 stake, becomes CEO of Axcom . Berlekamp works with Sandor Straus , Jim Simons and another consultant, Henry Laufe r, to overhaul Medallion’s trading system during a six-month stretch.

– buys out 2/3 stake, becomes CEO of . works with , and another consultant, r, to overhaul trading system during a six-month stretch. November 1989 – Medallion fund starts trading again – Changes to high frequency trading model. “Back in action, Medallion made its mark through rapid, short-term trading across futures markets. In the early years the types of inefficiencies that could be exploited by quantitative trading abounded. The firm made money by simply arbitraging Treasury bills against Treasury futures contracts. Luck helped too. In 1990, for example, the fund was long oil when Iraq invaded Kuwait .”

– fund starts trading again – Changes to high frequency trading model. “Back in action, .” 1989 – Background – Index Participation Shares invented: “According to Gary Gastineau , author of “The Exchange-Traded Funds Manual,” the first real attempt at something like an ETF was the launch of Index Participation Shares for the S&P 500 in 1989. Unfortunately, while there was quite a bit of investor interest, a federal court in Chicago ruled that the fund worked like futures contracts, even though they were marginalized and collateralized like a stock; consequently, if there were to be traded they had to be traded on a futures exchange , and the advent of true ETFs had to wait a bit.”

, author of “The Exchange-Traded Funds Manual,” the first real attempt at something like an ETF was the launch of Index Participation Shares for the S&P 500 in 1989. Unfortunately, while there was quite a bit of investor interest, , and the advent of true ETFs had to wait a bit.” 1990 – Medallion return = 55.9% net of fees (ie after management company fees)

– return = 55.9% net of fees (ie after management company fees) 1990 – Peter Brown, Della Pietra, Della Pietra, Jelinek, Lafferty, Robert Mercer, P Roosin Paper on statistical approach to machine translation – “ Brown, P. F., J. Cocke, S. A. DellaPietra, V. DellaPietra, F. Jelinek, J. D. Lafferty, R. L. Mercer, and P. Roosin . 1990. A statistical approach to machine translation. Computational Linguistics, 16(2):79 – 85"

– Paper on statistical approach to machine translation – “ and . 1990. A statistical approach to machine translation. Computational Linguistics, 16(2):79 – 85" 1990 – Background: Toronto 35 Index Participation Units TIPs 35 issued – “ launched by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1990 and called Toronto 35 Index Participation Units (TIPs 35). These were a warehouse, reciept-based instrument that tracked the TSE-35 Index.launched by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1990 and called Toronto 35 Index Participation Units (TIPs 35). These were a warehouse, reciept-based instrument that tracked the TSE-35 Index.”

– Background: Toronto 35 Index Participation Units TIPs 35 issued – “ By 2 August 1990 – “ Medallion is long Oil when Iraq invades Kuwait”

– “ is long Oil when Iraq invades Kuwait” During 1990 – Proximity is renamed Franklin Electronic Publishers : “In 1990 the company was renamed Franklin Electronic Publishers . But despite such product innovations as electronic bibles and wine guides in the 1990 s, the company’s shares languished, with the exception of a brief run-up to 44 in 1995 when the company came out with one of the first electronic books. In October [2000] the stock was trading at 101/4, up from a 52-week low of 33/4"

– is renamed : “In 1990 the company was renamed . But despite such and s, the company’s shares languished, with the exception of a brief run-up to 44 in 1995 when the company came out with one of the first electronic books. In October [2000] the stock was trading at 101/4, up from a 52-week low of 33/4" [Oct] 1990 – Berlekamp leaves to rejoin academia – sells interests in Axcom to Simons for 6x value purchased.

– leaves to rejoin academia – sells interests in to for 6x value purchased. [ Oct ] 1990 – Sandor Strauss takes charge of Medallion trading models

] – takes charge of trading models 1990s – Bear Stearns acting a prime broker – During the 1990s, RenTec used a joint back office (JBO) arrangement with Bear Stearns to increase its leverage beyond Regulation T margin restrictions permitting a maximum leverage level of 2:1.

– acting a prime broker – During the 1990s, used a joint back office (JBO) arrangement with to increase its leverage beyond Regulation T margin restrictions permitting a maximum leverage level of 2:1. 31 January 1991 – Numar assigns MRI patent to Bank Leumi LE Israel – “ Feb 13, 1991 – AS Assignment Owner name: BANK LEUMI LE – ISRAEL, B.M. Free format text: SECURITY INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:NUMAR CORPORATION, A CORP. OF PA;REEL/FRAME:005597/0611 Effective date: 19910131"

Feb 13, 1991 – AS Assignment Owner name: BANK LEUMI LE – ISRAEL, B.M. Free format text: SECURITY INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:NUMAR CORPORATION, A CORP. OF PA;REEL/FRAME:005597/0611 Effective date: 19910131" 8 February 1991 – Behavioural Dynamics Holdings Limited Incorporated ( UK) Companies House ( Nigel Oakes )

UK) Companies House ( ) 1991 – Henry Laufer joins RenTec

– joins 1991 – Lalit Bahl leads team in IBM Science Centre in Paris developing multinational speech recognitions system: “In 1991–92, he led a team at the IBM Science Cente r in Paris that developed a multinational speech recognition system.”

– leads team in in Paris developing multinational speech recognitions system: “In 1991–92, he led a team at the r in Paris that developed a multinational speech recognition system.” EOY 1991 – Medallion fund returns 39.4%

– fund returns 39.4% 1992 – DARPA establishes Linguistics Data Consortium – “ Linguistic Data Consortium is an open consortium of universities, companies and government research laboratories. It creates, collects and distributes speech and text databases, lexicons, and other resources for linguistics research and development purposes. The University of Pennsylvania is the LDC’s host institution. The LDC was founded in 1992 with a g r ant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) , and is partly supported by grant IRI-9528587 from the Information and Intelligent Systems division of the National Science Foundation. The director of LDC is Mark Liberman and the Executive Director is Christopher Cieri ”

– establishes – “ is an open consortium of universities, companies and government research laboratories. It creates, collects and distributes speech and text databases, lexicons, and other resources for linguistics research and development purposes. The is the LDC’s host institution. The LDC was founded in 1992 with a g ant from the , and is partly supported by grant IRI-9528587 from the Information and Intelligent Systems division of the National Science Foundation. The director of is and the Executive Director is ” 1992 – Doug Paul Lincoln Laboratories Viterbi multi-stack search algorithm: “ Viterbi search for the maximizing word string W. is not optimal, Lalit Bah l developed a multi-stack search algorithm inspired by the stack algorithm of Information Theory ( Jelinek 1969). The procedure was later formalized and cleaned up by Doug Paul of Lincoln Laboratories ( Paul 1992) Brill , E. 1992. A simple rule-based part of speech tagger. In Proceedings of the Third Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, pages 152 – 155, Trento, Italy. ACL”

– multi-stack search algorithm: “ search for the maximizing word string W. is not optimal, l developed a multi-stack search algorithm inspired by the stack algorithm of Information Theory ( 1969). The procedure was later formalized and cleaned up by of Lincoln Laboratories ( 1992) , E. 1992. A simple rule-based part of speech tagger. In Proceedings of the Third Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, pages 152 – 155, Trento, Italy. ACL” 1992 – Rob Frey joins RenTech from Morgan Stanley & Co : “ Robert Frey , its CEO, an eight-year [ NOTE – AS OF NOV 2000 ] Renaissance veteran who previously worked in the secretive Morgan Stanley & Co. analytical proprietary trading group.”

– joins from : “ , its CEO, an eight-year [ ] Renaissance veteran who previously worked in the secretive analytical proprietary trading group.” 1992 – Medallion starts to trade MBS – “ Medallion began trading mortgage derivatives in its fixed-income portfolio in 1992. Though not a Renaissance employee, ex­ - Lehman Brothers mortgage trader Judah Frankel managed the portfolio for Medallion. In 1995, following the 1994 bond market rout, Renaissance decided to make a larger commitment to the mortgage market and became a co­general partner in a new hedge fund called Matrix , run by Frankel . After gaining 27.4 percent in 1995, the fund racked up a stellar 101.3 percent return in 1996, according to hedgefundnews.com. Then interest rates moved out of the range projected for many of Matrix’s trades, and the yield curve inverted. In 1997 the fund gained just 3.3 percent; then in 1998 it lost 20.6 percent of assets. Though several Renaissance executives still have money in Matrix withdrew as a general partner last year. “Inversion was the kiss of death,” says Simons . “The fund was unhedged with respect to the yield curve.”

– starts to trade MBS – “ began trading mortgage derivatives in its fixed-income portfolio in 1992. Though not a employee, - mortgage trader managed the portfolio for Meda