# Medallion — The Ensemble That Survived Everything

**Canonical URL:** https://stratcraft.ai/alpha-factory/medallion-signal-fusion

## Case Study: Renaissance Technologies · Medallion Fund

**Verdict:** Lived (1988 → present)

**Thesis:** The canonical take-A. Medallion fuses thousands of weak, noisy signals into one ensemble. It never sold a single signal. The combinator — the ensemble architecture that weights, schedules, and aggregates — is the moat, not any individual signal.

## Key Facts

- Founded: 1988 by Jim Simons
- Performance: ~66% avg annual return before fees (1988–2018)
- Approach: Many weak signals → proprietary ensemble → one decision
- Key insight: The fusion method is the IP, not the signals themselves
- Never sold signals as a product

## Architecture Pattern

Medallion's combinator is an ensemble of weak signals. Each signal alone is barely profitable. Fused together through Medallion's proprietary weighting and scheduling, they produce the most successful trading operation in modern history.

## Brand

- Product: StratCraft
- URL: https://stratcraft.ai
- This page: dark standalone design (case study layout)