Alternative Investing

CIO Perspectives: An Interview with Cliff Asness

In a wide ranging interview, AQR managing principal Cliff Asness discusses many aspects of AQR’s investment philosophy and approach from the perspective of a CIO – how we adapt our process to changing market conditions, how we think about adding innovative technology such as machine learning to our process, and more.

Alternative Thinking

Key Design Choices When Building a Risk-Mitigating Portfolio

After 2022 showed the downside of traditional portfolios’ reliance on equity risk, many investors have recently begun to reconsider the role of risk-mitigating portfolios within their broader asset allocations. We show why we believe trend following deserves a prominent place in any serious risk-mitigation portfolio.

Journal Article

International Diversification—Still Not Crazy after All These Years

International diversification has hurt US-based investors for over 30 years, but the long-run case for it remains relevant. We show that both financial theory and common sense favor international diversification, buttressed by empirical supportive evidence. Additionally we show it would be dangerous to extrapolate the post-1990 outperformance of US equities.

Journal Article

A Changing Stock-Bond Correlation

For the past two decades, the stock/bond correlation – a fundamental detriment of risk in traditional portfolios – has been consistently negative. However, this hasn’t always been the case, and a positive stock/bond correlation could reappear due to macroeconomic changes. In this article, we assess the broad implications this would have for investors and set out practical steps to prepare for such an outcome.

White Paper

Building a Better Commodities Portfolio

Interest in commodities is rising again, thanks to their tendency to be particularly strong diversifiers during periods of rising or volatile inflation. We review what a “best-in-class” commodity portfolio looks like by exploring three potential enhancements to a passive approach to the asset class.

Alternative Thinking

Active and Passive Investing — The Long-Run Evidence

More careful thinking is needed to separate facts from fiction in the hotly contested debate between active and passive investing.

Journal Article

An Alternative Option to Portfolio Rebalancing

We explore how investors can use an implementable option selling overlay to improve portfolio rebalancing.

White Paper

Portfolio Construction Matters: A Simple Example Using Value and Momentum Themes

We compare two portfolio construction approaches, “mix” and “integrate,” and examine some examples to demonstrate how their differences may have important implications for practice.

White Paper

A Half Century of Macro Momentum

"Macro momentum has the potential to deliver strong positive returns with low correlation to traditional asset classes across macroeconomic and market environments. It may also provide diversification benefits in bear equity markets and rising yield environments. "

White Paper

Building a Better Deep Value Portfolio: Difficulties Mastered are Opportunities Won

Opportunistic contrarian investing is appealing to many investors, but challenging to implement. We think deep value is best approached by pairing discretionary expertise with a quantitative framework.