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Medallion compounded at roughly 35-40% net annually for decades.

The Claim

Jim Simons has the highest investing returns (net of fees) of any investor in history.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Available evidence strongly indicates Simons's Medallion Fund delivered the best-documented long-term net returns in modern investing. Reuters, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Morningstar consistently report roughly 35-40% annualized returns after fees over decades, far above famous peers. The absolute phrase "of any investor in history" is broader than the evidence can prove exhaustively, and some sources report slightly different net figures.

Caveats

  • The phrase "of any investor in history" is broader than the evidence directly proves through exhaustive all-time comparison.
  • Credible sources differ on the exact net annualized return, with estimates ranging from about 35.6% to 40%.
  • The record refers to Renaissance's Medallion Fund under Jim Simons's leadership, a closed fund largely limited to insiders.

The Receipts

  1. Jim Simons, quant investing pioneer and Renaissance Technologies founder, dies at 86

    Reuters

  2. The Unsolved Mystery of the Medallion Fund's Success

    Bloomberg

  3. Renaissance Technologies

    Wikipedia

  4. The greatest investor you've never heard of

    Morningstar

  5. Why the Medallion Fund is the Greatest Money-Making Machine of All Time

    Of Dollars And Data

  6. The Greatest Fund Ever? Why Jim Simons' Medallion Fund Still Stands Alone

    Yahoo Finance

  7. How Jim Simons Built the Best Hedge Fund Ever

    Yahoo Finance

  8. 66% Annual Returns for Decades

    Yahoo Finance

  9. Renaissance Technologies

    Acquired.fm

  10. Renaissance Technologies: The $100 Billion Built on Statistical Arbitrage

    Substack

+ 18 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Jim SimonsMedallion FundRenaissance Technologies

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