Cliff Asness.
Chris Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
AQR Capital Administration took benefit of a unstable first half of 2025, with a duo of hedge funds doubling the S&P 500’s return.
The Apex technique from Cliff Asness’ agency, which mixes shares, macro and arbitrage trades and has $4.3 billion in belongings underneath administration, rallied 11.4% within the first six months of the yr, in accordance with an individual acquainted with AQR’s returns who requested to be nameless as the knowledge is non-public.
AQR’s long-short Delphi fairness fund, with $4.1 billion in belongings underneath administration, gained 11.6% internet of charges within the first half of 2025, the particular person mentioned.
The inventory market staged a surprising rebound this yr at the same time as uncertainty stays amid an aggressive commerce warfare and Center East escalation. The S&P 500 has rebounded from a close to 20% sell-off in April, occurring to attain a report excessive on Friday and once more on Monday. The fairness benchmark is up 5.3% yr so far.
AQR’s different trend-following Helix technique has returned 7.4% thus far this yr, the particular person mentioned.
Asness co-founded AQR in 1998 after a stint at Goldman Sachs. He and his companions established the quant-driven agency’s funding philosophy at the College of Chicago’s Ph.D. program, specializing in worth and momentum methods.
The agency has efficiently expanded into multistrategy approaches in recent times. AQR has $142 billion in belongings underneath administration, up from about $99 billion in the beginning of 2024.
AQR declined to remark.
