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by soVeryTired 3115 days ago
As I’ve pointed out before, there are a lot of quant firms out there. I doubt Rentech have the massive edge that people seem to think they do. I think it’s much more likely that many firms had a small edge, and we notice the luckiest among them.

That said, I don’t doubt that they’ve had an edge. Maybe they were doing trend following in the 90’s, or HFT in the 2000s. Most firms’ strategies eventually leak via lateral hires, but rentech is a small shop and no-one has managed to nab one of their employees. So there’s no way to know for sure.

2 comments

They do have massive edge, but I doubt it comes from novel mathematics. My guess is it comes from very well designed systems at every stage of the process, honed over decades.
You don't notice the other firms because they've likely not been in existence as long and do not run as much money as Rentech does. Rentech has public pension money in it which by itself will attract more scrutiny. Chances are if you aren't running more than a few hundred million it could be all internal capital or a HNW individual or two.
> Rentech has public pension money in it which by itself will attract more scrutiny.

I thought Rentech was closed to all outsiders, and only internal money was allowed?

Only the Medallion fund.