How Renaissance Technologies Achieved the Impossible
When most people imagine legendary hedge fund managers, they envision seasoned Wall Street veterans, trading from a young age with years of financial market experience. But the most successful quantitative hedge fund in history was built not by a lifelong trader—but by a former math professor who didn't enter finance until the age of 40. This is the remarkable story of Jim Simons and the team of scientists behind Renaissance Technologies , and how they engineered results so extraordinary that they eventually turned away outside investors altogether. A Fund That Defied Belief The Medallion Fund didn’t just outperform the market—it obliterated it. With annualized returns of over 66% before fees , Renaissance Technologies' flagship fund became so successful that it stopped accepting outside capital altogether. The reason? The internal profits were so substantial, it made more financial sense to keep it in-house. The fund earned so much money, not only was investor access ...