Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 135 - 132: Legend

"Hahaha, a youthful girlish vibe? I feel like I’d prefer a youthful boyish vibe, or perhaps a handsome guy vibe. Is there any ’youthful boy coffee’? Give me a dozen." Yan Yan focused on the words "youthful girlish vibe."

"A dozen? Since when is coffee measured in dozens? Even if I gave you a dozen handsome guys, could you handle them all?" Bao Bao looked at Yan Yan, whose eyes were sparkling, and expressed herself with a bit of speechlessness.

"I just want 12 cups of coffee. Why would you give me a dozen handsome guys? As for handsome guys, having Qi Yi is enough." Yan Yan said to Bao Bao with a serious face.

"Are you ever going to stop? Can’t go a day without showing off your school hunk, or you’ll lose a piece of flesh?" Bao Bao watched Yan Yan with a bit of amusement.

"Yeah, I’ve already become a bony beauty, right? The places where I have flesh on my body are very few. If I lose another piece of flesh, no matter which piece, it would seriously affect my perfect figure." Yan Yan boasted shamelessly.

"Alright, your perfect figure wins by a landslide. I give up, okay?" Bao Bao said somewhat speechlessly.

"Do you plan on staying in Melbourne forever? Didn’t Meina tell you to come back home? With such a large family business, Meina can’t take care of it all by herself, right?" Yan Yan stopped teasing and changed the subject to ask Bao Bao about her future plans.

"I think making coffee in Melbourne is pretty great. If my sister is too busy, she should just find someone to marry earlier on." Bao Bao enjoyed Melbourne, because at least here, she could be free and be herself.

Yan Yan watched Bao Bao thoughtfully but didn’t speak.

The Bao sisters were quite interesting; Meina worried about Bao Bao marrying too soon, while Bao Bao found it annoying that Meina hadn’t married herself off right after graduation.

However, from the looks of it, Bao Bao probably didn’t have much to do with the whole marrying early thing anymore.

"Did Meina send you to talk some sense into me?" Bao Bao continued to question Yan Yan.

"Yes, she said she’s been persuading you for a long time, but you haven’t listened, and told me to persuade you whenever I have a chance." Yan Yan told the truth.

"Then why haven’t you tried convincing me?" Bao Bao only heard about it for the first time from Yan Yan today.

"Why would I persuade you about something even Meina can’t manage? I don’t like doing futile work." Yan Yan knew Bao Bao’s temperament very well and didn’t share Meina’s urgent hope for Bao Bao to return home.

"Thanks for understanding, student Yan Xiaoyan." Bao Bao picked up her drink and clinked glasses lightly with Yan Yan.

Yan Yan didn’t like to pressure people, and Bao Bao didn’t like being pressured; things were just right as they were now.

...

Grandpa:

Reply=>

How could you be like this? Your last letter was all about the miners on Wall Street; you didn’t even include a question for me to respond to. How am I supposed to reply then?

Without rules, there’s no standard shape. Don’t you know that?

Even if you are my grandpa, you can’t take advantage of your age and do whatever you want without restraint, alright?

Your last line in the letter, "Anyway, you just need to know your boyfriend is a miner on Wall Street," could easily be turned into a question for me to answer, couldn’t it?

Or is it that you didn’t actually want me to reply to your letter at all?

Uh...uh...uh...

Alright, I admit I feel guilty and I’m playing victim first...

I feel deep remorse for going to Shenzhen and secretly meeting another handsome guy without your approval, grandpa.

Eh, that’s not right.

You were on the plane when you wrote that email; you couldn’t have known I was about to have a secret rendezvous with a handsome guy.

Just because you missed writing letters for a few days, you’ve forgotten how to write them properly.

That’s not right.

It’s like a student who doesn’t write a paper for a few days and then forgets the format of a paper.

Isn’t it the same principle?

Look how good I am, without you asking, I just keep asking and answering myself.

Having me as a girlfriend who abides by the rules and follows them dutifully, you must feel very relieved, right?

Considering my good behavior, please don’t hold me accountable later on～(a pitiful yet cute face)

I’m replying a bit late today, but you see, I can’t be blamed for it. It’s completely and utterly your fault.

You introduced me to the world of Quants, and after mentioning the names Jim Simons, Peter Muller, Ken Griffin, you had to add that each of their stories is legendary.

You know I’m a living legend myself and would naturally be curious about stories from my kind, yet you reminded me specifically so that I would finish their stories before replying to your letter!

I’ve just read all about these three legends. The enigmatic Jim Simons has blown me away.

At 24, he became a math professor at Harvard. From 1989 to 2006, his hedge fund had an average return of 38.5%, while the great Buffett could only manage a 20% return rate.

While the other two legends were crumbling, Jim Simons managed to make his fund achieve an astonishing 80% return rate during the subprime mortgage crisis.

He’s terrifying; he doesn’t seem like a normal human being at all.

And I read that Jim Simons’s company, Renaissance Technologies, is actually a tech firm, hiring mathematicians, physicists, cryptographers, and specialists in computer speech recognition, with no connection to Wall Street.

Jim Simons always thought of himself as a mathematician, not a financier, only keen on participating in math forums. Without good math skills, one wouldn’t be able to even get into Renaissance Technologies.

He totally relies on mathematical models to find market opportunities and then on ultra-fast computers to make trading decisions amid extreme market volatility.

The book also says that hedge fund trades are now done in millisecond increments.

Unbelievable.

By ’millisecond increments’, does it mean that starting from identifying a trading opportunity, you need to close the position within a thousandth of a second after opening it?

This must require a perfect combination of genius mathematicians’ brains and supercomputer speeds.

It’s said that Quants use calculus, advanced geometry, and quantum physics to master the stock market, and any of those subjects are way over my head, honestly.

Really, the legends in the world of Quants are just too many.

Jim Simons first taught at MIT, then moved to Harvard to be a math professor; a 24-year-old math professor, just think about that concept...

Then he left academia because the salary was too low, cracked codes for the United States Department of Defense, and ultimately became a hedge fund legend. What a life...

Question=>

For our next meeting, which will be at my graduation ceremony, what kind of outfit should I design for you?