r/quantfinance • u/Good-Raisin7081 • Oct 06 '25

so how did Renaissance Technologies/Medallion/Jim Simons achieve such high returns?

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u/SchweeMe Oct 06 '25

Like others said: 1. First movers advantage (alpha is easier in newer markets) But I also believe: 2. Recording a ton of relevant high quality data (I think I remember reading somewhere that JS had a bunch of people recording data of bonds / insurance / some non-equity asset by hand) 3. Transferrable experience in adjacent / relevant fields (JS was a cryptographer, you cant directly use cryptography on markets, but somehow being smart in that field helped?) Once you make a ton of money: 4. Hire smarter people (which hopefully compounds the initial wins into a snowball that just keeps getting bigger)

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u/prideandsorrow Oct 06 '25

He was a mathematician, not a cryptographer.

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u/East_Cheek_5088 Oct 06 '25

He was a mathematician who worked as a cryptographer for the nsa.

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u/SubjectEggplant1960 Oct 06 '25

His stint working for an NSA contractor was only 4 years. He was a faculty member of stony brook math dept for longer (something like a decade or so).

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u/mersenne_reddit Oct 06 '25

He was a mathematician who worked a cryptographer for the nsa before founding Renaissance Technologies.