I would recommend the book The Man Who Solved the Market about Medallion founder Jim Simons. It doesn't go over the strategy extensively but goes through the history and culture of the firm. From reading it I would attribute their performance to execution. They have an incredible pipeline and hire almost entirely engineers and scientists. They have a rigorous scientific method in finding and executing on signals. And they've resisted taking more money and earning more on the management fee, opting for performance.
Everything about them is boring. They're well paid sure, but they're based in long island and hire mostly grey beards and don't overhire. Compare that to Jane Street hiring interns jumping through silly hoops like betting poker chips on puzzles. It's a bit of a farce.
Theoretically other firms could copy this, but the main goal of a hedge fund manager is keeping AUM. High AUM and poor performance is better than low AUM and strong performance. So its a lot easier to optimize on maximizing AUM and managing your brand. There aren't a lot of mathematicians that start hedge funds so the people starting them already seed the company with the wrong culture to replicate RenTech.
Everything about them is boring. They're well paid sure, but they're based in long island and hire mostly grey beards and don't overhire. Compare that to Jane Street hiring interns jumping through silly hoops like betting poker chips on puzzles. It's a bit of a farce.
Theoretically other firms could copy this, but the main goal of a hedge fund manager is keeping AUM. High AUM and poor performance is better than low AUM and strong performance. So its a lot easier to optimize on maximizing AUM and managing your brand. There aren't a lot of mathematicians that start hedge funds so the people starting them already seed the company with the wrong culture to replicate RenTech.