I've just been reading 'More Money Than God' - a fascinating read. Anyway, there's lots and lots of interesting stories, anectodes about Hedge Fund Managers.
Reading about the secretive nature of Renaissance I would reckon they make some money by
1. scanning of all research reports they get
2. scanning of all important news websites
3. real-time analysis of the data collected in steps 1 and 2 with 'language recognition' algos
4. combining sentiment (what people are reading/writing) with momentum, technical analysis signals
5. trading it
Interesting how they put a lot of emphasis on russian coders...
Would be interesting to read more about what they learn in russia, that we didn't/don't in the west.
Anyone have more information on Renaissance and their techniques, please add a comment with links...