If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Was this the motto for Long-Term Capital Management alumni?
 
It certainly seems that way. But perhaps it's time to find a new one.

It turns out that Long-Term Capital founder John Meriwether isn't the only survivor of the hedge fund that imploded spectacularly in 1998 who is having trouble surviving today. Eric Rosenfeld, a former Salomon Brothers trader who helped Meriwether start both L.T.C.M. and J.W.M. Partners, has his own troubled tale to tell, Portfolio.com has learned.

Rosenfeld parted ways with Meriwether to start his own fund last year. He reunited with L.T.C.M.'s former chief financial officer, Robert Shustak, and the fund's former controller, Bruce Wilson, to start Quantitative Alternatives L.L.C. in Rye Brook, New York.
 
The plan, according to reports, was to use statistical models for trading strategies much like those employed by the ill-fated L.T.C.M. It had hoped to start trading by the end of last year.
 
But that day would never come. The fund never got off the ground, and the three partners decided to fold the operation at the end of last year. But unlike the dramatic finale of L.T.C.M., Quantitative Alternatives exited the scene in silence.
 
"The capital-raising environment was very challenging," says Shustak, who was reached by phone in his new office at QFS Asset Management. "At the end of the year, we just decided it wasn't the right time to raise a new quantitative fund. We didn't feel it was appropriate."

No one knows about today's challenging environment better than Meriwether, who is now struggling to keep his nine-year-old hedge fund solvent, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Meriwether started J.W.M. Partners with five other principals of L.T.C.M., including Rosenfeld, and its biggest fund is down 28 percent so far this year.
 
As for the defunct Quantitative Alternatives, Shustak declined to say how much money the trio raised before quietly calling it quits. He landed on his feet at QFS earlier this year, and Shustak says Wilson is now working for Third Point Partners, an activist fund run by the outspoken Daniel Loeb.
 
Rosenfeld, however, is still "exploring his different options," Shustak says. Efforts to reach Rosenfeld both at home and at the former offices of Quantitative Alternatives were unsuccessful.

So is there a Long-Term Capital curse? When two or more former L.T.C.M. traders enter the same room, does lightning strike?
 
Shustak doesn't think there's enough evidence that the shared experiences at L.T.C.M. have anything to do with the success or failure of a new joint venture.  

And he has reason to hope that's true. One of the principals of QFS, Shustak's current firm, worked in the back office for L.T.C.M., according to his bio.