Jim Simons - Rentech and beyond

[LC]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/jim-simons-the-numbers-king

[fareastwarriors]

 

Jim Simons, billionaire quantitative investing pioneer who generated eye-popping returns, dies at 86

[Morgan]

RIP.

 

66% per year from 1988 to 2020 according to this Forbes article. Totally insane. He probably has the best record ever.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexlazarow/2020/10/31/what-jim-simons--one-of-the-worlds-most-successful-investors--can-teach-us-about-fintech/?sh=424521912aa9#:~:text=Jim Simons is arguably the world’s best investor.,(and trading gains in excess of %24100 billion).

 

 

[Sweet]

12 minutes ago, Morgan said:

RIP.

 

66% per year from 1988 to 2020 according to this Forbes article. Totally insane. He probably has the best record ever.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexlazarow/2020/10/31/what-jim-simons--one-of-the-worlds-most-successful-investors--can-teach-us-about-fintech/?sh=424521912aa9#:~:text=Jim Simons is arguably the world’s best investor.,(and trading gains in excess of %24100 billion).

 

 

 

Yes, crazy performance but I understand that he kept his fund on the smaller side deliberately.  His methods and strategy might not have worked at scale.

[Hektor]

42 minutes ago, fareastwarriors said:

Jim Simons, billionaire quantitative investing pioneer who generated eye-popping returns, dies at 86

RIP Jim Simons. The Man Who Solved the Market has some interesting read on how Jim Simons did it.

 

 

[Morgan]

37 minutes ago, Sweet said:

 

Yes, crazy performance but I understand that he kept his fund on the smaller side deliberately.  His methods and strategy might not have worked at scale.

 

Yes very true. I think at it's largest, they were using $10-$20b in equity plus 4-5x leverage. It's crazy to see Renaissance Technology as large shareholders in many of the nano-caps I look at, but that money has to go somewhere.

[Sweet]

 

[whatstheofficerproblem]

39% annualized after fees.. Jim is the goat. He also has a lot of goodwill in the stem research space especially in the quant start up space, funded so many labs/companies that couldn't find funding elsewhere.

[villainx]

I heard somewhere that this was also just principal?  That profit was distributed out every year?  
 

Trying to find confirmation on this. 

[linus_md]

This is true as far as I know see for example this: https://gerd-kommer.de/der-beste-fonds-aller-zeiten/ the sources below the article are in English.

[ValueArb]

On 5/10/2024 at 2:07 PM, Sweet said:

 

 

Yea, the conclusion isn't true (for investors).

 

The problem is that Medallion could never scale, it was always limited to $5B to $10B in capital. An investor couldn't annualize 66% on an investment in Rentech because of its liquidity cap. You could earn 66% (minus 5% annual fee, and 44% performance fee) on your principle every year, but your interest could only be reinvested elsewhere, making maybe 10% annualized. This is why only employees were allowed to invest for most of its life.

 

We should call Jim Simons an arbitrageur and a market maker before calling him an investor. It seems like Renaissance has a very effective set of trading/arbing strategies that makes money almost every year, with the only limitation in trade and market sizes. It reminds me of Buffett during the partnership days, as it seemed like his results were very disconnected from the market and every year he was profitable, presumably because he was focusing on special situations instead of long term investments. 

Edited May 20 by ValueArb