LTCM strategies

Long Term Capital Managment  was run by a few Wall Streeters along with a couple of economics nobel prize winners, and as expected they had failed spectacularly in the late 1990s when volatility jumped, expectedly. Of course this again raises the earlier question of whether complex mathematical models are really necessary to make money in the markets.

Probably not.

Of all the mathematical ingenuity, the LTCM guys traded simple statistical arbitrage strategies e.g. interest rate convergence and basic pair trading that don't really require anymore than a basic understanding of applied statistics and no more math than calculus.

So again, making a profit is easier than most people think. It's the stuff that makes a KILLING (e.g. alpha generating high speed algo) that requires extraordinary intellect, talent; and these folks have a bit more ambition than academic recognition.