IMHO the more interesting story is the linked to article on the mechanics of what the firm was doing. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-04/divide

IMHO the more interesting story is the linked to article on the mechanics of what the firm was doing. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-04/dividends-annuities-and-hedge-funds https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-04/dividends... Dividend arbitrage is one of those activities that was common for a while and it launched alot of funds that were active for a couple of years until the space got too crowded and the tax implications became too gray for most funds. I think I've made this point several times on HN before, but taxes, specifically tax minimization is a huge factor, and becoming larger all the time in the returns of many hedge funds. Rentec is one of the more famous funds who is known for making large returns that is very aggressive with its tax avoidance. As i said in a previous comment, Rentec is full of incredibly smart people but when a tell all book is written about them, I'm betting that a much larger portion of their gains than most people realize will be shown to come from tax avoidance. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-21/how-rentec-made-more-34-billion-profits-1998-fictional-derivatives http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-21/how-rentec-made-mor...