Quant pioneer Renaissance Technologies’ painful summer continued in July

Renaissance Technologies was not immune to the quant market malaise that infected many of its biggest rivals.

The Long Island-based money manager lost 5.1% in its largest fund available to investors, the Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, and 3.9% in its Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha strategy, a person familiar with the quant manager told Business Insider. The two funds are still up through 2025’s first seven months — gaining 5.6% and 6.5%, respectively — but have lost money in the last two months.

The manager declined to comment.

The quant pioneer, which was started by the late billionaire Jim Simons and is now run by his one-time lieutenant Peter Brown, is one of many computer-driven hedge funds to get caught up in what one executive called “a long, slow bleed” of systematic losses. The Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund was down close to 6% in June, according to an HSBC report.

Managers such as Qube Research & Technologies, Engineers Gate, Man Group, and more have lost money this summer, Business Insider previously reported, despite stock markets ticking up over the same period.

Industry experts believed in late July that a turnaround was coming, and data from institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs from the final week of July point to a potential start to a turnaround. Morgan Stanley wrote in a client note that quants made back roughly 30% of their summer losses in the final week of July, for instance.

The 43-year-old firm has seen its assets shrink in recent years, but had a strong 2024 with a 22.7% return in RIEF. It was the fund’s best year since 2011.

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