medallionmen
The secrecy architecture. NDAs that cover employment; post-employment; and apparently the afterlife. Employees who worked there for decades won't describe the strategy. The SEC has investigated. Academics have tried to reverse-engineer it. The honest answer is: we have hypotheses; no confirmation.
medallionmen
Just the numbers. 66% gross annual returns before fees. 39% after the eye-watering 5-and-44 fee structure. From 1988 to present. Buffett's long-run is 20%. The S&P is 10%. Nothing in the history of finance is close. Lay this out cold and let it land.
medallionmen
The pivot question. He's 40; tenured; respected. He starts a hedge fund in a strip mall in Long Island. Why? The honest answer involves ego; money; and the fact that he thought financial markets were a solvable problem. Most people who think that are wrong. He wasn't.
medallionmen
His academic career — Chern-Simons theory; one of the most important contributions to theoretical physics and string theory in the 20th century. He was a legitimate world-class mathematician. Not smart guy who liked numbers. The real thing. This matters for understanding what he built.
medallionmen
The origin. Simons at the NSA breaking Soviet codes during the Cold War; then getting fired for publicly opposing the Vietnam War. The pattern: brilliance; institution; ejection; reinvention. He does this three times before he's 40.
medallionmen
Three acts. Act I is Simons the man — who he was before the money. Act II is the machine — how Renaissance actually works and what the quant revolution built. Act III is the world they made — consequences; imitators; and what it means that math ate finance.
gamblingguide
Series capstone. The casino is optimized infrastructure for human comfort and productivity that most people only access as gamblers. Environmental design, subsidized food economics, hotel arbitrage at 30-50% discount, working from casinos, the Casino as Basecamp model for travel, $20 activation play
gamblingguide
How you manage your gambling budget determines your entire experience. Session, trip, and annual bankroll layers. The 1-2% per bet professional standard. Preset stop-loss and stop-win limits. The sunk cost trap and why getting even is the most expensive mindset. Risk of ruin calculations. High rolle
gamblingguide
The comp system is designed to give back a fraction of what gamblers lose. But the calculation is based on theoretical loss not actual loss, which means disciplined players can extract significant value while controlling their actual exposure. Theoretical loss formula, tier systems compared, host re
gamblingguide
The legal sports betting market is in aggressive customer acquisition mode. The sign-up bonuses deposit matches and free bet offers represent a genuine arbitrage window for the disciplined non-gambler. How sign-up bonuses actually work, the bonus clearing playbook, arbitrage across books, account lo
gamblingguide
Slots have the worst player odds in the casino and generate the majority of casino revenue. Understanding why they're so effective is one of the most useful pieces of behavioral economics you can learn. Variable ratio reinforcement, near-miss engineering, loss disguised as win, and the evolution of
gamblingguide
Video poker is the most underrated game in the casino for the mathematically inclined. Certain machines at certain pay tables return over 99% — some over 100% with optimal play and comps factored in. How to read a pay table: the difference between 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54% return) and 8/5 (97.3%)