Cliff Asness: Hedge Funds Search for Their Real Killers

By Cliff Asness of AQR Capital

After many years (decades) of being one of the very early hedge fund critics I've recently (tepidly) defended hedge funds from overwrought attacks that wrongly compare them to a beta of 1.0 in a bull market and, as usual, act as if we learn more from a few years than we really do. In these tepid defenses I share my own concerns that this tepidity (if not a word it should be) is intentional and permanent.[1] That is, mine is a defense against a near legion of badly targeted criticism, but not close to an “all clear” sign that hedge funds...