Laufer was chief scientist and vice president of research at Renaissance Technologies, a Setauket, New York-based hedge fund that managed about $23.2 billion in assets as of September 2024 in funds open to external investors. Its Medallion Fund has delivered an average annual return of about 40% since 1988.
Laufer's fortune is derived from the Medallion Fund, the signature investment vehicle of Setauket, New York-based Renaissance Technologies. Renaissance had about $23 billion in assets under management in funds open to external investors, according to a Financial Times report.
Medallion's quantitative investment strategies have delivered average returns, net of fees, of about 40% since 1988, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its assets are capped at around $10 billion and it distributes profits every six months, according to a person familiar. It was closed to outside investors in 1993 and is owned entirely by employees, according to documents released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Labor and Senate. Laufer and four partners own about 70% of Renaissance, according to a 2014 Senate investigation.
He's collected more than $3.8 billion in distributions since 2006. His Medallion stake is based on the low end of the 10-to-24.9% range disclosed in SEC filings from 1997 through 2009. The fund charges as much as 5% of managed assets and 44% of profits, according to the ADV filing. These aren't included in the net worth calculation. Federal and New York state short-term capital gains tax rates are applied. No market appreciation is included.
Renaissance is valued at $10 billion, according to an analyst with a history of valuing hedge funds. It's valued using a multiple of nine times earnings (higher than stakes sold by other asset managers with lower returns) and assumes a 30% return net of fees (lower than Medallion's historical performance).
Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Renaissance, didn't reply to a request for comment.
Henry Laufer is a former mathematics professor at Stony Brook University who also served as chief scientist and vice president of research for New York hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. He received a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University and left Stony Brook to join the leadership team at Renaissance Technologies in 1992. He retired in 2009.
Renaissance was founded by Jim Simons, who in 1977 left Stony Brook University to start Monemetrics, a quantitative trading firm that focused on commodities. He changed the name to Renaissance Technologies five years later and created its flagship Medallion fund in 1988. The fund, which is now exclusively run for the benefit of Renaissance employees, uses quantitative modeling and trading algorithms to invest in global markets, according to a Nov. 25, 2016 Bloomberg News report.
The billionaire retired from Renaissance in 2009.