"Give Me Strength," Asness Begged Green Lantern. "Show Me The Way," He Implored Captain America. "Stop The Ass-Bleeding," He Cried out To Clark Kent
David Einhorn favors stuffed animals. George Soros goes with the Pez dispensers. Jeffery Gundlach, his most prized dildos. What sort of good luck charms money managers keep in their office (along the windowsill or around their monitors but always within arm's reach) might not seem that important but its these little garden gnome-type figures who watch over things, and who some of the most powerful investors in the world turn to when times get tough. Who helped Cliff Asness survive the quant meltdown of '07 (and the mutual fund hiccups of the future)? The answer may not surprise you. From Scott Patterson's The Quants:
Friday morning at AQR, August 10. Asness glanced pensively at a candy-colored array of Marvel superhero figurines lined up along his east-facing window.
Spiderman.
Captain America.
The Hulk.
Iron Man.
Comic book heroes of his boyhood days on Long Island.