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Consuelo Mack's WealthTrack Preview: Guest: Cliff Asness, Co-Founder & CEO, AQR Capital Management,

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
June 21, 2018

Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,

We are celebrating the launch of our Fifteenth Season on Public Television this week! Talk about long-term investing. We are delighted that you are here to share it with us.

Our goal when we started the show was exactly as it is now - to help our viewers build long-term financial security through disciplined, diversified investing, with advice from some of the top professionals in the business. We are continuing that tradition this week.

One of the hallmarks of Great Investors and Financial Thought Leaders is independent thinking. In order to beat the market you have to do unconventional things. This week’s guest is a prime example. He is known for his rigorous research and ability to create strategies that are either non-correlated with market behavior, i.e., they zig when the market zags, or add alpha, a performance edge over the market using more conventional strategies.

We’ll be joined by Cliff Asness, Co-Founder, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer of AQR Capital Management, a global money management firm he launched in 1998. It now has $225 billion dollars under management in hedge funds, as well as other alternative and more traditional strategies for clients and its family of mutual funds, which it started in 2009. One of the oldest, the AQR Managed Futures Strategy Fund, which has so far achieved its goal to be non-correlated to the market is co-managed by Asness and has a Morningstar Bronze analyst rating.

AQR stands for Applied Quantitative Research. The firm uses proprietary computer models to forecast returns for a wide variety of assets and geographies using a heavy application of old fashioned human brainpower, which it has in abundance. At last count 11 of the firm’s 26 principals have doctorate degrees and 5 are current or former professors.

Asness is a PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago where he was Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama’s teaching assistant for two years. He has won numerous prestigious awards for his own research including the CFA Institute’s James R. Vertin Award in recognition of his “body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals”.

AQR is known for its value orientation but Asness is quick to point out there are other key strategies employed. During this week’s interview, we’ll discuss the four core strategies AQR has identified over the years that can add a performance edge to portfolios.

If you miss the premiere show of our new season on air this week, you can always watch it on our website. It’s available to our PREMIUM viewers right now and to everyone else over the weekend. We also have an EXTRA interview with Asness about his research on a seldom used but highly effective ice hockey strategy that has investment applications.

Also, if you're looking to take WEALTHTRACK with you on your commute or travels, you can now find the WEALTHTRACK podcast on TuneIn, Stitcher, and SoundCloud, as well as iTunes. Find out more on the WEALTHTRACK Podcast page.

Thank you so much for watching. Have a great weekend and make the week ahead a profitable and a productive one!

Best regards,

Consuelo

Video Clip:



Comments

  • edited June 2018
    His Assness needs to explain performance of QLENX and QMNNX. Why they matched S&P 500 trajectory when the going was good, and why they are suddenly sucking wind this year.

    Makes you wonder if these funds are really doing what they are supposed to do.
  • These funds are not magic formulas. Some times they will be positioned well, other times they won't be. What ends up being important is how they do over time, over an economic cycle, and almost always the answer is - no better than a plain vanilla balanced fund.

    Now, if you are going to trade in and out of these funds you are going to lose. By the time you notice, hey this guy has the magic touch, you will be buying high. When you notice they are "sucking wind", you are likely to sell low.

    Give me that good old balanced fund anytime.
  • Ok good. So timing is important. People who bought it in last few months, would be good to know what they are doing now. "Long Term" has different meaning when your investment is down 8% in 6 months. An investment that's NOT supposed to do that.

    I've sworn off his Assness because they are not retail investor friendly shop. I'm happy with my OTCRX.

    Confused though with what you said about balanced funds. His Asness has one??? Else, I agree with what you are saying. I have a slew of balanced funds.
  • OTCRX. 1.97% ER. Too costly, even if they have he finest team. you ca't expect much with that burden.
  • edited June 2018
    "Long Term" has different meaning when your investment is down 8% in 6 months. An investment that's NOT supposed to do that.
    VF, where did you come up with that rule???

    Long term certainly means more than 6 months to most people. Timing is less important if you are a long term investor. Timing I suppose is more meaningful if you trade in and out of funds. But I don't believe that is a winning strategy.

    We probably agree. My point is you can do better investment-wise with a typical balanced fund, equity/bonds, rather than with these strategic funds that Asness proposes, funds that try to zig as the equity market zags.
  • edited June 2018
    That didn't come out right.

    My point is If anyone bought say QLENX 3 years back, she has no trouble holding onto it for the "long term". If one bought it in Jan, it is hard to hold on to it.

    Easy to criticize investors for "buying high and selling low". At "opportune" times, i.e. never in a bear market but after bull market has recovered we keep seeing articles "only if investors had held onto..." etc. etc. As if investors never EVER sell a fund at the right time. As if funds NEVER break, and then go down.

    WTF did I hold on to HSGFX? Because I bought it early. Was that a good decision. No? I held on for the long term didn't I? OTOH if anyone bought Hussman 5 years back and sold it in 6 months he came out ahead. Then my investment in TFS funds. I held on for long time. What happened? Before they could turn around, they simply folded. SEEDX anyone? How many people held on SEEDX for the "Long Term"?

    Regarding OTCRX, I'm able to "hold on" because of WHEN I bought it. It's easy when portfolio shows positive returns for a fund. Not otherwise.

    My point. WHEN you buy, and sell, is important. MUCH more important than which fund you buy. "Long Term" is bullshit and term coined solely to make sure enough foolish assets stay with the firm so they can continue to rake in fees.

    EDIT: Let's see how many SFGIX holders hold on for "long term" if they purchased YTD. What I know is if $ goes up / E goes down, I'm going to buy ARTYX, ARTZX and then trade them. Long Term can kiss my a**.
  • edited June 2018
    Hadn't checked SFGIX in a while; seems it's lost a little more than twice as much as Laura Geritz's new-ish RNWOX during the YTD EM downdraft.

    By the way, +1 to VF's post immediately above.
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