These guys aren't here to provide beta. If you want to beat the market on a strong year, then you can just buy/hold SSO. When evaluating these funds, you really have to look at risk-adjusted returns. You should look at these funds' draw-down in May/June, for example. Look at Millennium Partners; 20 years of track record with 15% compound annual returns (net 20% incentive fee). Their *max* draw-down in over two decades of trading: -7.01%. That's just unbelievable.
They have $5b in AUM, and you can't put that to work in a single strategy. Like most other similar funds, they have tens of separate teams running their own book.
<a href="http://www.highfrequencytraders.com/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/39299_saupload_best_hedge_fund_jim_simons_medallion.png" rel='nofollow'><img src="http://www.highfrequencytraders.com/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/39299_saupload_best_hedge_fund_jim_simons_medallion.png" /></a></strong></p> Medallion fund doesn't employ a single trader. The max investment in the fund is 8-10 billion to be scalable. I'd guess that Paulson took in more than Simons on the sheer size of his fund. As for Soros, his Quantum fund never is listed in top 10 yet he manages to make billions a year.
My thoughts on Rentech: Something does'nt add up. They have a fund you can't invest in that produces stellar returns and funds you can invest in that don't. Hmmmmmm Especially interesting as the fund you can't invest in (and thus not subject to audit?) compounding at 30% still seems able to generate these returns despite increased scale - so why can't that skill be transferred to the ones you can invest in - sounds a bit like how GS seem to able to make returns for themselves but not for funds they manage for others. Way too much publicity coming out about Simons - seems carefully managed e.g how Simons doesn't wear shoes (in an interview that took place in New York in January) Take a look at some of their equity holdings - illiquid small cap - too illiquid for any meaningful statistically valid inferences? Of course I am just not getting it about how I should be looking at Rentech in a completely different way.
It seems likely that the strategies used in medallion are at capacity with their own capital. Given the nature of their performance, they have zero incentive to share this group of strategies with customers.