As a Ph.D. in finance, Zweig's approach was unique and ahead of its time with the focus being on in depth economic and quantitative research using hard data.
Zweig is credited with inventing numerous market indicators such as the Put/Call ratio and other important measures of investor sentiment.
This correspondence resulted in Marty hiring Joe as his research assistant which was all about crunching numbers (mostly by hand) and digging into reams of data, often going back 50 or more years.
Upon graduating from college in 1980, DiMenna stayed with Martin Zweig and continued to market research, as well as beginning to work on stock selection techniques.
Having extensive experience with markets and stocks, DiMenna proposed to Zweig in 1983 the idea that they use their skills to build a money management platform in the form of a hedge fund.
While common now, there were fewer than 10 hedge funds in existence at the time with a total amount of assets of several $100mm under management.
[5] In 2008, Alpha Magazine ranked DiMenna 13th on their list of Top Moneymakers noting his $450 million earnings in 2007 and double-digit annual returns between 2002 and 2007.
[7] The DiMenna Children's History Museum at The New-York Historical Society bears his name in recognition of his $5 million lead donation in 2010.