The “Quant Winter” is a distant memory.
Billionaire Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management ($189B AUM) delivered stellar double-digit returns across its flagship funds in 2025, significantly outperforming the broader systematic market.
📊 THE SCORECARD (Net of Fees): While the industry average for trend-following funds struggled (Societe Generale Index: +2.5%), AQR’s algorithms found massive alpha:
- Apex Strategy (Multi-Strategy): +19.6%
- Helix Strategy (Alt Trend Following): +18.6%
- Delphi Long-Short Equity: +16.8%
💡 ANALYST TAKEAWAY: The divergence here is staggering. AQR’s Helix (+18.6%) beating the trend-following benchmark (+2.5%) by over 1,600 basis points suggests that their proprietary signals and risk management models are successfully isolating value in a noisy market where generic trend-following is getting crowded out.
👇 Quants & Allocators: Is this proof that “Factor Investing” is superior to pure “Trend Following” in the current vol regime?