https://www.scmp.com/rss/327385/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Before he was denounced as a thief and cast out of the hedge fund industry, before he was a Goldman Sachs banker or a maths prodigy, Ke Xu was a little boy in Hubei province, who loved puzzles. His parents, junior government clerks, didn’t have much money, so Xu would scour the house to find old algebra and science textbooks. He spent hours with the series 100,000 Whys, children’s brainteasers with a Maoist flavour. The commune wants to build 40 tractors – how many wheels should it buy? When Xu... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2181637/chinese-maths-prodigy-turned-hedge-fund-coder-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2181637/chinese-maths-prodigy-turned-hedge-fund-coder-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jan 2019 14:01:15 +0000 Horse racing is something like a religion in Hong Kong. Its citizens are keener gamblers than any other people on Earth. Their cathedral is Happy Valley Racecourse, its grassy oval track and floodlit stands ringed at night by one of the sport’s grandest views: neon skyscrapers, neat stacks of high-rises and a constellation of illuminated windows. On the evening of November 6, 2001, all of Hong Kong was talking about the biggest jackpot the city had ever seen: at least HK$100 million (then about... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2150721/how-american-gambler-unlocked-secret-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2150721/how-american-gambler-unlocked-secret-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Jun 2018 01:47:14 +0000