The insider fund sure is doing fantastic, considering the ones available to outsiders didn't do very well. http://www.iimagazine.com/Alpha/Articles/2088123/FEATURES/Medallion_Glitters.html
Nobody claiming it is a ponzi anymore... Wow... I have seen so many different possibilities about Medallion's trading it is hard to see the truth. The guys that left Rentec and got in trial for trying to sell their knowledge were talking about hacking POSIT trading venue, others talk about getting the level of stop orders, stat arb, front running public fund, dividend arb... One thing is sure, they are getting better and better.
1) +80% is excellent. 2) It's probably a "good thing" that he didn't start-up the 100-billion-dollar fund that had been bandied about last year.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123553339326867241.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_money_and_investing " James Simons helped put Stony Brook University on the map with his work as a mathematician, philanthropist and billionaire hedge-fund manager. He also helped introduce the college to Bernard Madoff. The 70-year-old Mr. Simons, one of the world's most successful hedge-fund managers, encouraged the 24,000-student school to invest with Mr. Madoff while Mr. Simons was chairman of the Stony Brook Foundation, which manages investments and helps fund scholarships. Drawn to Mr. Madoff's conservative strategy and strong returns, the foundation's investment committee approved an initial allocation of $500,000 in 1991, says Robert J. Frey, the committee's current co-chairman and a former ..." Certainly will be interesting if we ever get to see the secret sauce. Although a few drops are known to occasionally leak...
That fund WAS started and completely whiffed this past year. I don;t have exact performance figures but they were lagging even in June. Do a google search for Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund. 'The Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, started in mid-2005 is being offered as a "mega-fund" for institutional investors; reportedly it has a capacity of up to $100bn"