It is true that RenTec's RIEF fund had a rough 2009 due to the large swings in 'junk' stocks and was amongst the worst hedge fund performers.
But their Medallion fund had a stellar 2008, finishing up over 80%. They did well in 2009 it looks like as well, as Bloomberg estimates they were up 38% and made $1.1 billion through the first ten months of 2009.
One does need to keep in mind that each fund is pursuing a different strategy and as such they are not comparable.
Medallion is highly levered, RIEF is not; Medallion is very fast trading, RIEF is very slow trading; they're barely correlated.
