In writing about hedge fund managers and other celebs in the world of finance, sometimes I find myself wondering what these men were like as children, before the billions, and the bitches, and the fleece. I’m pretty sure Ken Griffin carried a briefcase to school starting at the age of 5, and the 12 year-old Jim Simons was a lot like the 72 year–old one we know today– bearded and chain smoking a pack of Pall Malls. Stevie didn’t develop a taste for the finer things in life (fleece) until college, preferring until then to swath himself exclusively in silk. And so on and so forth. But what of Biff Basness? I’ve had some difficulty getting a good picture of the AQR founder in my head. Luckily, a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson, The Quants, sheds a little light.
As a child, Clifford Scott Asness gave no sign of his future as a Wall Street tycoon. He was born in October 1966 in Queens, New York. When he was four, his family moved to the leafy suburban environs of Roslyn Heights on Long Island. In school Asness received good grades, but his interest in Wall Street didn’t extend beyond the dark towers of Gotham in the pages of Batman. Obsessed with little besides girls and comic books, Asness was a listless teenager, without direction and somewhat overweight. At times he showed signs of a violent temper that would erupt years later when he sat at the helm of his own hedge fund. Once a chess team rival taunted him in the school’s parking lot about a recent match.
That’s when things got real.
Enraged, Asness seized his tormentor and tossed him into a nearby van, over and over again.
at TCW i beat someone with a dilly- top that- jeff g.
Checkmate you say? I'll show you checkmate m'fer!
'somewhat overweight'…
I liked his role in the movie "Watchmen."
i hate dis guy.
-CG (The chess team rival)
yeah, right he did. I'm sure a few "witnesses" have been paid to give Biff's some street cred.
"Chess player beatdown" is like Bunny Mellon v. Anthony Marshall.
you vicious animal liar beth levin!
@7 were they the same ppl paid off to tell the reporter CA was a tubby comic-book nerd?
Wow – that "chess" rival must have been tough!
Scimatar needs to have his own website, funniest stuff ive read on this site, besides Bess of course….
Wow – that “chess” rival must have been tough!
Wow – that “chess” rival must have been tough!
He's 43? Must be dog years based on how he looks.
Picture him more along the lines of Robin.
“Once a chess team rival taunted him in the school’s parking lot about a recent match”
In the words of Ogre: “NERDS!”
A reminder: It’s “Dr.” Cliff Asness, …Please carry on….
beth, I’m going to beat you against my van tonight.
-biff
“Once a chess team rival taunted him in the school’s parking lot about a recent match”
In the words of Ogre: “NERDS!”
Bullshit story. Assness is a punk. This geek has no balls outside his little fiefdom called AQR. There is a reason the whole place is filled with spineless yesmen. Assness’s insecurity wouldn’t let him keep anyone who might challenge him.
This fat slob couldn’t even walk up to his third floor office without taking a bacon break.
Hey 10, 12, 13 – Do you think the chess “rival” was tough?
@21: challenge. His lutz must require SOME level of athleticism.
@21 – there is nothing wrong with a bacon break
-tribe member
@21 tell us more, aqr employee.
Bacon break – that’s an AWESOME idea. Think I’ll head down to the deli and get me some.
This guy is the worst.
What were Frazzi’s boyhood pursuits?
Van?? Wow, he must have been a real bad-assness. Was it the “Mystery Machine”? No wait, he wasn’t driving until the mid-80′s so that sweet shaggin’ waggin’ must have been a Chrysler Town & Country.
we called him “fatty piggly wiggly” on pizza Friday. AQR peeps know what’s up.
true story.
stupid story.
31 = cliff
I thought his wife laurel fraser was going to be uber goy when I read she was the daughter of a minister from some corn fed environs, then I got a look at her at Greenwich hospital function….my yiddishah momma
I thought his wife laurel fraser was going to be uber goy when I read she was the daughter of a minister from some corn fed environs, then I got a look at her at Greenwich hospital function….my yiddishah momma