Strangely, the other funds operated by the same company and actually open to outside investors, have not performed as well. It is unexplained exactly why.
Acquired.fm has a great episode on RenTec medallion fund vs their institutional funds.
‘David: The way that some folks we talked to described the difference between the institutional funds and Medallion to us is that Medallion’s average hold time for their trades and positions is (call it) a day, maybe a day-and-a-half. Whereas the average hold time for the institutional funds positions is a couple of months.’
From some of their legal settlements it seems a not insignificant part of their advantage is dreaming up obscure illegal tax dodges on short term capital gains that are later revealed as such to keep more funds invested.