Quote from 99atlantic:
I bet his super-secret blackbox is something sooooooooooo incredibly simple anybody could undertsand it if they looked at it; and his scary high-level math concepts are a way of protecting it.
However, I could always be wrong
Disclaimer: the following is pure speculation
there is a saying that the biggest lie that the Devil is selling the world is that he doesn't exist. whether literaly or mythological, u get the point.
the same philosphy is currently used to governs the stupid masses and control society today.
same applies with very, very intellegent people.
A truly successful person has nothing to hide.
R-tech website vanished along time ago.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030602194219/www.rentec.com/about_us.htm
other relevant thoughts: Jim Simmons is Jewish. I'm not against any group of people, but it just happens that a very small group of people are very very clever.
from what I've read, most of those Phd's at R-tech have little input to trading. they actually continue study in their area of research - physics, maths, chemistry, astrophysics, hard-core sciences - very much like a small university. have a picture tour of their HQ in NY:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030207075124/www.rentec.com/tour.htm
Jim simmons sits on the board of a number of companies around NY. he is well-informed, at times a 'Renaissance' of Steven A Cohen.
Lets face it, if you have a working formula, would you go out and scream it at the world?
Simmons talks on how successful their quantiative approach has been has attracted thousands of hedge funds in this area. hundreds have failed and closed down.
take it from another angle: if trading edge was significantly quantiative, computational power, then IBM, the japanese, or even the indians would dominate financial markets today.
I do no dispute quantiative trading is not possible, IT CERTAINTLY is. however, trading systems fit on data, no vice versa, they do not make markets, they follow market agents having followed previous trends. IN PURE ENGLISH: quantiative trading with large gains is almost impossible with BILLIONS of dollars (esp. leveraged).
When i was younger, it never occured to my head a priest could be gay or molest children. I could've never imagined president of countries to be corrupt. I never expected old men to lie. today, the least I expect or anyone would even bother to question is a hedge fund manager who has won a maths award and "EMPLOYES" OVER 20 Phds. well done.