storia molto ben fatta sul migliore fondo del mondo - gz
¶
By: GZ on Mercoledì 28 Novembre 2007 02:28
C'è oggi una lunga ^storia molto ben fatta sul mitico Jim Simons#http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ayjImYcoCiH8&refer=home^, il matematico di fama mondiale che ha creato il migliore hedge fund del mondo e forse della storia ormai, Renaissance Technologies, il cui fondo storico, Medallion quest'anno rende un altro +55%. Nessuno vi può però investire dal 1992 perchè ha restituito tutti i soldi agli investitori e appartiene ora solo ad un centinaio di fisici, astronomi e matematici che vi lavorano sotto la direzione di Simmons. In compenso ora ha creato altri due nuovi fondi e in totale ha ora 30 miliardi in gestione con piani di arrivare a 100 miliardi, il tutto gestito in modo computerizzato
Da anni tanti cercano disperatamente di scoprire qualcosa degli algoritmi di Medallion e l'unico caso in cui qualcosa è traspirato è stato quando due russi sono stati licenziati, Simmons gli ha fatto causa per avere rubato dei segreti e il tribunale ha in parte come parte delle prove al processo indicato qualcosa su questi metodi
La sostanza è che fanno migliaia di piccoli trade veloci ogni giorno, rubando 10 tick di qua e mezzo punto di là su migliaia di strumenti finanziari
---------------------------------
....The firm accuses Alexander Belopolsky and Pavel Volfbeyn of appropriating trade secrets. Belopolsky and Volfbeyn deny the charges. In a July decision, the two briefly described three strategies that Renaissance had explored. One involved swaps, which are contracts to exchange interest or other payments; another used an electronic order matching system that anonymously links buyers and sellers; and a third made use of Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange limit order books, which are real-time records of unexecuted orders to buy or sell a stock at a particular price.
With his myriad positions in different markets, Simons likens his approach to the extensive farming he once practiced in Colorado, using center pivot irrigation to grow wheat on thousands of acres.
``Every little stalk of wheat was not doing so great, but most of them were, so you're working on statistics,'' Simons says.
By contrast, he says, the traditional focused investing practiced by Warren Buffett is akin to intensive farming, in which each individual plant really counts. ``It's two completely different ends of the spectrum,'' Simons says.
Tidy Fortune
Medallion's farm stand sports quite a markup: The firm generally charges a 5 percent management fee and 36 percent of profits compared with the industry standards of 2 percent and 20 percent. With virtually no outside investors in Medallion, Simons and Renaissance employees are paying the tab -- and reaping the rewards. RIEF investors can select from four share classes with varying and far less expensive fee structures.
Though Simons dislikes talking about it, Renaissance has built him a tidy fortune. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents show he controls 25-50 percent of Renaissance, having spread the rest of the firm's ownership among employees. So Simons's share of the performance fees earned by RIEF and Medallion was roughly between $375 million and $750 million in 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
With Medallion's 44.3 percent return in 2006, if Simons had invested $2 billion in the fund, he would have garnered an $885 million profit. He declines to comment on his investment.
According to Bloomberg calculations, ^Simons ranks No. 3 among the world's hedge fund managers with $1.01 billion in firm-wide performance fees during the first three quarters of 2007......#http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ayjImYcoCiH8&refer=home^
