Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
AQR Capital Management
The Greenwich, Connecticut quantitative manager that Cliff Asness, David Kabiller, John Liew and Robert Krail founded in 1998 after leaving Goldman Sachs Asset Management's quantitative research group. It is the firm that publishes the factors it trades — value, momentum, carry, defensive (low risk, "betting against beta"), quality and trend, across stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities — and sells them at every price point, from hedge funds to low-fee mutual funds and tax-aware separate accounts. AQR shows the two sides of a documented risk premium better than any other firm. It nearly died twice in its first decade: the 1999–2000 tech bubble, when value had its worst 18 months in 50 years of data, and 2007–08, when the August 2007 quant quake and the financial crisis cut firm assets from a reported $39.1bn (Sep 2007) to $17.2bn (Mar 2009). Then the "quant winter" of 2018–20 took the flagship Absolute Return fund down more than 30% from its 2018 peak to its 2020 trough and assets from a peak of about $226bn to roughly half, with about 40% of a ~1,000-person staff gone (Institutional Investor, Sep 2024, reported). The same published factors then paid: Absolute Return gained +43.5% in 2022, and by the end of 2025 assets were reported at ~$187bn (Forbes, Mar 2026, reported). AQR's lesson for the edge equation is discipline and survival: a real premium can lose for years, and the manager survives only if its clients' capital stays.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1998 (Wikipedia gives January 1998, citing Lindsey & Schachter, How I Became a Quant, 2007); founders Clifford Asness, David Kabiller, John Liew and Robert Krail, all from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). The first fund launched days before Russia's default in August 1998 (Institutional Investor, Sep 2024)
- Headquarters
- Greenwich, Connecticut (moved from New York in 2004, Wikipedia); offices in the US, London (2011), Sydney (2005, first international office) and elsewhere (Wikipedia; verify current list)
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership controlled by its principals; Asness the largest individual shareholder with an estimated ~30% (Forbes, Mar 2026, estimate). Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) bought a minority stake in Nov 2004 (announced 22 Nov 2004; AMG 8-K and 2004 10-K) and still holds one (Forbes, Mar 2026). SEC-registered investment adviser; registered voluntarily at inception, among the first hedge-fund managers to do so (Wikipedia)
- Leadership (2026)
- Cliff Asness, managing principal and CIO; John Liew and David Kabiller, founding principals (Forbes, Mar 2026; Wikipedia). Robert Krail's current role not checked (verify). Bryan Kelly, Yale finance professor, heads machine learning (Forbes, Mar 2026)
- Business lines
- Hedge funds (Absolute Return, Apex multi-strategy, Delphi long-short equity, Helix alternative trend, Equity Market Neutral, Style Premia); liquid-alternative mutual funds (since 2008–09); long-only factor and "enhanced" equity mandates; managed futures and risk parity; tax-aware long-short separate accounts (Flex)
- Scale (dated, reported)
- AUM ~$750m (2001, WSJ); ~$12bn (Nov 2004, AMG); peak $39.1bn (Sep 2007); $17.2bn (Mar 2009); $26.8bn (Aug 2010) (all Bloomberg Markets, Oct 2010, from investors); peak ~$226bn (2018) (Institutional Investor; Forbes) — Wikipedia's table lists $224bn for 2017 and $193bn for 2018 (FT), so the peak's date and basis differ by source; $143bn (2020, P&I); ~$99bn (Q4 2023, P&I); ~$110bn (Sep 2024, II); $142bn (Jul 2025, CNBC); ~$187bn (end-2025, Forbes). Employees ~1,000 at the 2018 peak; 573 in 2023 (P&I via Wikipedia)
- Regulators
- SEC (adviser; registered mutual funds under the Investment Company Act); CFTC/NFA for futures (managed-futures and multi-asset funds — registration status not checked, verify); the FCA for the London office
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding from GSAM's quant group (1998); surviving the 1999–2000 value crash and "Bubble Logic"; the Aug 2007 quant quake and the 2008 collapse; AMG minority stake (2004) and the turn to institutional and mutual-fund money (2004–10); publishing the factors (2012–19); the 2018–20 value drawdown and shrinking the firm; Apex and the multi-strategy recovery (2020–25); the machine-learning turn (2018–26); tax-aware Flex and the asset rebound (2024–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1998
Founding from Goldmans Quant Group
Founding or fund launch / hiring, spin-out or partner departure
2000
Value Crash and Bubble Logic
Loss, drawdown or blow-up response / strategy pivot (entry into long-only management)
2007
Quant Quake and the 2008 Collapse
Loss, drawdown or blow-up response
2008
Liquid Alternatives and Mutual Funds
Capital raise, fee change or return of outside capital / new strategy, product or market
2013
Publishing the Factors
New strategy, product or market (research disclosure as a business strategy)
2018
Machine Learning Turn
Technology or infrastructure bet (AI)
2018
Value Drawdown and Shrinking the Firm
Loss, drawdown or blow-up response / restructuring
2020
Apex and the Multi Strategy Recovery
Founding or fund launch / strategy pivot
2025
Tax Aware Flex and the Asset Rebound
New strategy, product or market / capital raise