Jim Simons sat in a storefront office in a dreary Long Island strip mall. He was next to a women’s clothing boutique, two doors from a pizza joint and across from a tiny, one-storey train station. His office had beige wallpaper, a single computer terminal, and spotty phone service.

It was early summer 1978, weeks after Simons ditched a distinguished mathematics career to try his hand trading currencies. Forty years old, with a slight paunch and long, graying hair, the former professor hungered for serious wealth.