YouSaid · the spoken record

Gregory Zuckerman

lines on the record: 124
first: 2019-10-30
most recent: 2019-10-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That your relationships are the most important thing you've got and you've got to develop them. You've got to be kind to people that are kind to you. I always was, but it's been reinforced to me. But also the fact that our reputations are created and recreated almost on a daily basis. So you can be doing poorly at your job. I've had times at the Wall Street Journal where I was low man on the totem pole and people didn't really give me good assignments. You can change that. That's the beauty of it. You go break a story. You can change. You can your reputation can transform. And if you blow it, you know, your reputation is impacted too. Don't make any mistakes, but don't lose hope. Just tomorrow is a new day. Go break a story.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, this is a broader recommendation for young people in general. Find the people, find the individuals in whatever area you're interested in who are the paceetters, who are the key individuals, people that you respect, and reach out to them. Send them a note. Hey, I'd love to buy a cup of coffee. You have 20 minutes of your time. People are generous with their time. You'd be surprised. I'm sure you found it too. People on Wall Street, senior people, want to help, want to give back, are much more generous with their time than you might think. Don't be intimidated if you've got genuine interest. Reach out to them. Tell them why you're interested in the area. Form a relationship.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's a great point that John Paulson is a very good investor, but he got too big. And how many times have we seen that same story? Over and over and over and over. And, you know, these guys are fallible like anybody else. You could be smart, but take on too much money. And then you're going with your second best idea and your third best idea, et cetera. And he missed that lesson. Everyone thinks I'm the exception. Oh, because I did the greatest trade ever. And I caught this one before other people and they're wrong. And it's tough to take on all that AOM. And as you suggest, Jim Simons capped at least the medallion fund. He capped that. So maybe he learned that lesson.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's close. And I would argue that he missed the lesson of the greatest trade ever. Why is it called? Why do I call it the greatest trade ever? Because it had limited downside and remarkable upside. And frankly, that's what he did his whole career, even when he was a risk ARB, he was getting into positions a little riskier than most other risk arbs, but they had potential for upside. A new buyer comes in in a merger deal and limited downside because I already had a deal. His whole career, he was doing those kind of trades until he did the greatest trade ever. And then he took on all this new money and he started betting on banks and on pharmaceutical companies and gold, lots of upside, but also lots of downside. He missed the lesson. Exactly.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There were a lot of people that were worried about housing. What I do give Jump Paulson credit for is figuring out a way to express that trade, express that bearishness. And that to some extent is palapelle. I agree. Pellegrini told John Paulson, hey, Both, there are these things called CDS contracts. Really? What are they? So Paulson, I have no idea what CDS contracts, and that obviously was the key to the greatest trade ever. So I give Pellegrini a lot of credit in the book and otherwise for coming up with a way to express that trade, but I also give Don Paulson tremendous credit for he was a 50-year-old guy who didn't know anything about the debt markets and he threw himself into learning about how to express that trade when lots of other people were sticking with equities and shorting equities.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of the six billion agreed, but he was fine with that. Listen, Paulson was the one taking the risk if the trade had blown up. It wouldn't have blown up. But if it hadn't worked out, then Paulson would have to close down his fund probably. So Pellegrain was okay with that. I think the big argument is that Paulson, I don't give him so much credit for being”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a good six months later, and it wasn't necessarily, you know, he was okay with that. He was $175 million. How do you be upset about that? Well, because.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm sorry. Did it? There you go. Right, right. Yeah, you could do any of those things. Yeah, there are new ways to have a voice that in the past there weren't. You don't have to be in the mainstream media necessarily to have influence and have an impact. And you still can have impact and improve things and write about people. And that's one thing I always tell journalists, focus on the people. You can get at important themes through the individuals. And they make for the most memorable stories, at least the way I look at it.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I just spoke to a group down in the DC area students, and it's easier to have a voice. You can start a podcast, you can start a blog, you can break news locally, you can be on Twitter.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I know people. There are a bunch of people who wonder about this. Listen, if you're a macro tourist as I am and to some extent, looking at where the world is. The politics, me too. Right. You've got to at least consider all kinds of possibilities. Nowadays, more than ever.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Most people agree with you. I agree. I don't see that as a truth. I don't agree talk to people in DC. I was just down in DC.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How those three states going to vote? It's fascinating. That's Penn. Real question to me is if he loses, what does he do and what happens? That's fascinat”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. And to some extent, he's right. We are going to miss him. He brings news. He creates news every single day. It's exhausting. It's emotionally draining for us, but it does sell papers and we are going to miss that.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Renewed appreciation of what we do, and I sense that as well. Readership is up both at the Wall Street Journal where I am and elsewhere.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not coming anytime soon. Do that book, sure. If he does something special, a new challenge. I like the challenge. But I do think there's a new freedom that people have, again, not just on Wall Street, but in society, to be critical of the media and me included. The flip side is there's a new appreciation too.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. People don't know who he is. And my story was sort of obvious. It was they had peaked in AUM. They lost some money. People were coming out. It wasn't like a flood of money. And the returns were good, but they're no longer great. And I wrote this story and they were ferocious. They came back hard at me, both privately and publicly. So he gets on this conference call and he starts insulting me. He says, Mother Zucker he calls me publicly. Mother Zucker. Mother Zucker was kind of amusing.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess it's a difficult time in some ways for journalists. We're at a time where it's more, it's open seasoned to some extent. You can criticize, you can be open to your criticism. So I wrote a story about Jeff Gunlack a couple years ago.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, I'm at the point where you have a good run, good workout, and you're kind of happy about that. But I'm pretty competitive. So listen, if I can contribute, then I'm proud at this point. I don't need to start and dominate like I was a quick, good pass first point guard back in the day. And if I can come off the bench and help, that's fine today.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I obsess over the New York Yankees with my son Eli and play a lot of sports. I'm on a softball team. I'm on a basketball team.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wrote a front page story. It became a front page story about John Paulson and his tremendous trade, the Sumpride trade. And people internally were kind of like, well, he must have cheated. There's no way he could have done it in a legitimate way. I wrote a book. I broke the story on the London whale. And even internally, they were like, Jamie Diamond, JP Morgan, there's no way they could have that kind of embrace that kind of risk. I did a story about a family, about a brother of a woman in canter Fitzgerald who died on 9-11. And I wanted to tell the story of how he wanted to tell the story of how his sister died on 9-11. And I started researching it. People were like, you're never going to find out exactly how she died. And you know what? You work hard enough. And that's the lesson. Sometimes you can actually piece things together.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The lesson is to keep pushing. And if you've got an instinct and to keep pursuit, listen, some of my best stories, quite frankly, are those that editors were lukewarm on. And I kind of kept going at it.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. And I thought they were front running that legitimate trading. And that's how you get the smooth returns. Right. And I wasn't the only one on Wall Street who had that thought. And that's no excuse. I should have pursued that story. And I blew it. I should have kept working on it.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was charming but not convincing. I asked him a series of tough questions. I came out of it, unconvinced that it was legit, but I thought he was front running. I didn't think it was a complete fraud.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Right. When did that barrens piece come out of one or two? I think maybe 2001. Good source for the tip. It was a good source in the industry, but didn't have firsthand knowledge. So I started making some calls. And it was early in the process. I got a call from Bernie Madoffs right-hand person. And they said, hey, here are you making calls on Bernie? Why don't you come in and meet with him? And I was torn. At that point, I hadn't done enough research. So I said, I want to meet Bernie, but let's do it in a week or two. Well, Greg, he travels a lot. There aren't going to be many opportunities. If I were you, I'd really take advantage. So I went in, met with Bernie.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm reading the earlier one, but she's brilliant in her own right, catch her in the riot at a young age, left a huge influence in me in terms of being an outsider. And that's what as a journalist I see myself. My job is to kind of poke holes and look at the foibles and mistakes and accomplish. I saw myself in that character, the Holden Coffee Ella character to some extent.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I immediately think Know American pastoral is great, there's really nothing much from him that I don't love and won't read. I'm reading Patty Smith right now.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then he went, Is that the New York Times now, book author, Denneth Thieves? He wrote a book called Follow the Story, which is about writing. And I've read and reread that book numerous times. So that guides me. There's an editor at the journal named Mike Sikanalfi, who I've learned a lot from. He's an investigative editor. We had a poller package that we won this past year, and he was the editor of that group. And he has left a big influence on me.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it was a famous case of went to the Supreme Court, and he won, and he left an impression on me with a book. I was buying Barrons at a young age. In camp, I was trading stocks. I was a guy who was going to go work on Wall Street. And I didn't really do any summer kind of jobs. I was working in camps and didn't really have an experience, didn't know anyone. My dad was an academic. And I graduated, and I did well. I went to Brandis University, did well, and I couldn't even get an interview on Wall Street. It was 1989. It was after the market crashed a couple years earlier. I stumbled around. I started some businesses and some work, some didn't. And then I went in one day and interviewed to be a financial journalist. I'm like, wait, I love writing and I love Wall Street thinking of pay me to write about Wall Street. How great is that?”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I was going to go work on Wall Street. I was reading books like Adam Smith and Ray Dirk's, doing this guy, Ray Dirks. The name is Vigo.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ah, yeah. So I never really had great mentors, quite frankly. I've had a series of bad bosses early in my life before gaming. Who's your current bad boss? No, now my muses are great. Early on. So early on, I stumbled into this profession. Oh, really?”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've got this separate life where I write books for young people with my two sons. So we wrote two books called Rising Above, where we've interviewed sports stars who overcame challenges in their youth, racism, sexual abuse, physical abuse, all kinds of different emotional and other types of challenges. And we asked them how they did it. And to us it was really inspirational and we share those stories in our books.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Never owned a car leased, grew up in Providence Rhode Allen outside of my dad taught at Brown University. Nothing really going on. The most exciting thing was we'd walk to campus, my high school friends and I and try to hit on girls and usually unsuccessfully. So that required legs and not automobile. So yeah, didn't really have a car.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, the Renaissance story, the Jim Simon's story, really is a story about the scientific method. If you think about it society today and you think about the White House, it's all about narratives. And if you think about Wall Street 2, Theranos, and WeWork, and people get carried away with the narrative, and it leads to problems. It leads to real issues. Whereas there's something to be said, I've become a believer in the scientific method where it's about data, it's about proof. And that is, to me, one of the lessons of the Renaissance Jim Simon story.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, Simon himself isn't a believer in the Big Bang, and yet he's funding efforts to test if it actually there's some proof to it.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly, of ability to see, go back in history and see through the massive telescopes to see what happened. So he's on the cutting edge of all kinds of different science and he's just as focused on that as he was trying to crank out the 66% returns at the medallion fund.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he's also trying to subsidize the work, and is subsidizing the work of scientists trying to get at the beginning of life and how this world began, the first moments of our existence, of this universe existence. They're trying to build out in Chile, all kinds of massive”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it depends how many each year. But oh, yeah, it's huge amounts, millions of dollars. I mean, he's worth $23 billion. But to his credit, he's on the cutting edge of all kinds of different approaches when it comes to science, education. They publish quantum.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Pretty good gig, yeah. But really, it's not to say he's not very hard at work, he runs a foundation and it's really active, one of the biggest supporters of science in the country. They're very active when it comes to things like autism research and they're at cutting edge. They back all kinds of cutting edge approaches. He supports, he funds. He subsidizes the salaries of high school math and science teachers in New York City, 10,000 of them, because he doesn't want so many leaving to go to work for that cost.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but very different personality. For sure. Bob Merson is this cool customer. You can't read him. Even his colleagues don't really understand. He's so unemotional. They don't understand where he stands on certain issues. You do not wonder when it comes to Peter Brown. So in some ways, they offset each other. They worked really, they melded, and they meshed really well together.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and when he took over, when Bob Mercer stepped down, people internally were concerned because, as I said, Peter Brown is a little bit competitive.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, he again has a great instinct when it comes to people. So he's not just like this quant focused on money and numbers and algorithms. He understands people and what drives that. And he thought he could work with some of the people leading the coup. Yes, they were headstrong and tempestuous and difficult, but they had potential as managers, and he was right. He actually created, he turned them into pretty good managers. So for whatever reason, he's got these talents on both sides of the equation.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I keep coming back to the point that Jim Simons loves money and they were really valued employees. So they could have been jerks, but he gets past that. And he's a great manager. He wasn't insulted by that. Listen, if you're going to hire some of the top scientists in the world, you're going to get the personalities that come with that. And he embraced that. So he wasn't insulted. He doesn't take himself so seriously. He actually gave back some equity. And he said, maybe you guys are right. And I'm taking too much of a cut. And I give him credit for that.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, they were people telling Jim Simons he made too much money. There were people saying he should step down. There were people, it was something of a coup. They tried to. How does he?”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That extent he sold the market, but right, there's no hidden understanding that jumps out at you that he knows that you and I don't know. He says flummixed by the day-to-day moves as anyone else. What he does and his colleagues really do understand is that what impacts prices is a lot more than you and I are aware of. Now they've got whole levels of factors that aren't included in the AQRs and the stuff that you can buy off the shelf, et cetera. So they have a better understanding of the market, I would argue, than anyone else. But maybe it's a little overstated to say they completely solved it.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, they've accomplished a lot in their own right. I mean, these are scientists that are big names, hollow names in some of these fields. It's hard to focus on the fact that even setting aside when it came to Wall Street investing, these people are really accomplished in their own right. So they're proud of what they've done. And some of these people don't mind talking.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but just got too busy. This guy's, he's got a lot going on, and he's not going to call him up and say, Can I talk to Greg? Already, you told me I can't talk to Greg, but now can I talk to Greg? It wasn't worth their while. So I had to keep finding other people. And quite honestly, a lot of the people early on at the firm and in his life were old and early.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know why Barret? Because they weren't even concerned about the possibility that Jim might get angry with them. Oh, yeah, well, you say that Jim is talking to you about how do I know that's true. That's Jim.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, so I don't do off the record, off the record, the way we define it, the Wall Street Journal means you can't use that information, but I was upfront with all these people and saying, I'd like to use your information on background, meaning I can use it. Right, but I won't name you, I won't quote you, I won't cite you. I said, you know, I've been around a little bit, so I have a certain reputation. And I said, I'm not going to burn you. There's no incentive for me to burn you. I'm not going to name you. I'm not going to tell anybody at Renaissance that we're talking. So I got people sufficiently comfortable. And Jim Simons was pretty darn open and frank and transparent, I have to tell you about what he wanted to speak about. Again, I want to make clear that he wasn't opening the kimono and telling me all his signals. I had to get that stuff on my own and how he dealt with certain things and the setbacks and the narrative and the drama behind the scenes, but he was quite cooperative about other things. And I have to thank him for that.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many times. Came close. Too many times. Really? Yeah, I mean, I wasn't close to giving up, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to make it happen. And then I would have a breakthrough. Someone would be kind enough to share with me and talk to me. Maybe be on the record. Maybe it wouldn't. But that would keep me going. That would give me encouragement and deal with all the people slamming the door on my face. Subsequently, because then there'll be somebody kind enough to share right after that.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Night. And part of it is because I was fascinated by the story myself and these characters are interesting and intriguing and what they accomplished and the challenges they overcame and the drama behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of. So it was the hardest thing ever did, but also it was rewarding and fascinating to me.”
2019-10-30 · Masters in Business · Gregory Zuckerman on the Quant Revolution · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source