Quit and I’ll Sue!

Posted by Josh Friedlander | No Comments

An article about a legal settlement between Renaissance Technologies Corp. and Millenium Partners (two hedge fund firms), contained an unintentional bit of reverse logic regarding employee retention.

The lawsuit was over two employees who left Renaissance, widely accepted as one of the most absurdly and consistently profitable hedge funds in history. Renaissance, which is run more like a research univeristy than a hedge fund (with scientists working on projects to establish and quantify theories about the market that can be exploited for profit) boasts extremely low turnover.

Discussing said turnover, Renaissance founder and chief Jim Simons was quoted by Reuters:

“We don’t have any turnover. We’re very careful,” said Simons, adding that two who left “are at the other end of a lawsuit.”

Now, I’m sure he doesn’t mean his employees stay with the firm for fear of a lawsuit, but Reuters might have done a better job making that clear!

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