Cliff Asness

Clifford Asness
Clifford Asness
Born	October 17, 1966 (age 60); Queens, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Hedge fund manager
Known for	Co-founder of AQR Capital Management
Notable work	Research on value and momentum investing, Global Alpha hedge fund

Clifford Scott Asness (; born October 17, 1966) is an American hedge fund manager and co-founder of AQR Capital Management. As of June 2025, Forbes valued his net worth at approximately US$2.9 billion.

Early life

Asness was born into a Jewish family in Queens, New York. His mother, Carol, operated a company specializing in medical education, while his father, Barry Asness, previously worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and was also a boxer. When Clifford was four years old, the family relocated to Roslyn Heights, New York. He completed his secondary education at Herricks High School.

In 1988, Asness graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, earning dual bachelor's degrees in computer science and finance through the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (M&T). His fascination with finance and portfolio management emerged during his time as a research assistant at Wharton, where he utilized computer software to analyze financial markets and test economic hypotheses.

He obtained his MBA with high distinction in 1991 and subsequently earned a PhD in finance in 1994 from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. During his studies at Chicago, Asness served as a teaching assistant to Nobel Prize winner Eugene Fama, who along with economist Kenneth French, formulated the seminal Fama–French three-factor model in 1992. This model enhanced the traditional Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) by incorporating size and value risk factors, differentiating between value stocks and growth stocks.

Asness’s doctoral thesis investigated the effectiveness of momentum trading, focusing on purchasing stocks exhibiting upward price trends. He posited that it was possible to consistently outperform market averages by combining both value and momentum strategies. Although he did not originate these investment approaches, Asness was among the pioneers to present comprehensive empirical validation across various markets, thereby facilitating their acceptance within mainstream academic finance.

Global Alpha

Asness embarked on his professional journey in 1990 while still pursuing his PhD. In the early 1990s, he transitioned from academia to lead Goldman Sachs Asset Management's (GSAM) newly established quantitative research desk. He recruited two peers from the University of Chicago to collaborate on developing models that assessed risk factors across currencies, bonds, and economies. Drawing upon Fama and French’s factor theory, Asness and his GSAM team applied these academic insights practically during the late 1990s, integrating findings from his doctoral research. He managed GSAM’s quantitative desk until 1997 when he and several colleagues departed to launch their own quantitative hedge fund.

In 1995, Asness secured an initial $10 million commitment from Goldman Sachs partners to implement his team’s algorithm-driven strategies. This capital base expanded to $100 million, prompting Goldman Sachs to establish the Goldman Sachs Global Alpha Fund. Global Alpha became one of the first systematic trading hedge funds, recognized for its high-frequency trading methods and for advancing the careers of both Asness and Mark Carhart. The fund employed sophisticated computer models to identify undervalued equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities while utilizing short selling to exploit price momentum. Designed to generate profits regardless of market trends, it was characterized by The Wall Street Journal as a "big, secretive hedge fund" that had produced millions for Goldman Sachs by 2006.

At its zenith in 2007, Global Alpha managed assets exceeding $12 billion, ranking among the largest and top-performing hedge funds worldwide. However, following significant losses after mid-2008, its assets under management dwindled to $1 billion by 2011. As a result, Goldman Sachs decided to close Global Alpha in late 2011.

AQR Capital Management

Applied Quantitative Research (AQR) Capital Management, a quantitative hedge fund firm, was established in 1998 by Asness, David Kabiller, John Liew, and Robert Krail. During 2002 and 2003, Asness earned $37 million and $50 million respectively. In 2004, AQR moved its main office from New York to Greenwich, Connecticut.

Although AQR faced losses amid the 2008 financial crisis, by late 2010 the firm oversaw $33 billion in assets under management (AUM). An October 2010 Bloomberg article characterized AQR as a "quantitative investment firm" utilizing algorithms and computer-driven models to trade across stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities.

In 2016, Connecticut's State Bond Commission approved $35 million in financial incentives to retain AQR within the state, joining other hedge funds like Bridgewater Associates. This included a $28 million loan requiring the preservation of 540 jobs and the creation of 600 new roles by that year. Additionally, AQR received $7 million in grants aimed at supporting its growth.

By 2017, Forbes reported that Asness had redirected efforts from hedge funds toward more accessible, lower-fee products such as mutual funds designed to replicate hedge fund returns through computational models.

By 2019, AQR had transformed into an "investment firm" managing one of the largest hedge funds globally. A 2020 Forbes feature emphasized AQR’s implementation of factor-based investing strategies across a spectrum of offerings including hedge funds and mutual funds.

In 2023, Asness alongside institutional investors invested several hundred million dollars into Niche Plus, a newly launched multimanager hedge fund and ClearAlpha Technologies’ inaugural fund. Co-managed by former AQR professional Brian Hurst and ex-Goldman Sachs CIO Elisha Wiesel, this fund specializes in niche approaches such as temperature arbitrage.

Selected academic publications

A 2001 article in the Journal of Portfolio Management observed that while many hedge fund managers excel at stock selection, not all employ effective techniques. In 2003, Arnott and Asness disputed conventional wisdom in the Financial Analysts Journal by demonstrating that firms with higher dividend payouts tend to experience stronger earnings growth, noting that low payout ratios often "preceded low earnings growth." That same year, Asness argued in the Journal of Portfolio Management against using stock market P/E ratios as a comparison to interest rates (the Fed model).

A 2013 study published in The Journal of Finance by Asness, Tobias Moskowitz, and Lasse Pedersen uncovered "consistent value and momentum return premia across eight distinct markets and asset classes," highlighting a robust common factor structure. Nevertheless, this approach is susceptible to market limitations and systemic risks: during the 2008 financial crisis, AQR and similar firms endured substantial declines with assets falling from $39 billion in 2007 to $17 billion by the end of 2008.

Publications about Asness

On June 5, 2005, The New York Times featured a profile of Asness focusing on his dedication to analyzing the risk-reward relationship.

Asness was also profiled in Scott Patterson's 2010 book, The Quants, alongside prominent figures such as Aaron Brown of AQR Capital Management, Ken Griffin from Citadel LLC, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, and Boaz Weinstein of Deutsche Bank. Patterson depicted Asness as a critic of poor practices within money management who possessed exceptional intellectual capabilities. Recognized as "one of the smartest investors in the world," Asness distinguished himself as a leading student at the University of Chicago’s economics department in the early 1990s and later at Goldman Sachs before co-founding AQR Capital Management in 1998 with assets under management exceeding $1 billion—a nearly unprecedented launch scale at that time.

Economic and political commentary

Asness is a frequent contributor to discussions on financial matters, appearing both in print and on television networks such as CNBC. He has voiced strong opposition to the elevated fees charged by hedge funds, especially those with high correlations to equity markets that essentially deliver returns comparable to stock index funds but at a substantial premium, justified solely by claims of superior market expertise.

In 2008, he publicly opposed restrictions on short-selling in an article for The New York Times. Two years later, in a The Wall Street Journal opinion piece co-authored with Aaron Brown, he contended that the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation would lead to phenomena such as regulatory capture, crony capitalism, and the emergence of a sprawling "financial-regulatory complex." His writings for Bloomberg often explore topics like investment manager taxation and health care reform, typically through a lens influenced by libertarian principles and beliefs in market efficiency.

In an unpublished manuscript from 2000 titled "Bubble Logic," Asness criticized the irrational and unsustainable stock valuations that characterized the technology bubble of 1999–2000. Marking the bubble’s fifth anniversary, he reiterated these critiques in The Financial Analysts Journal, also addressing resistance to the expensing of stock options.

Asness was notably critical of President Barack Obama, penning essays condemning the administration's handling of Chrysler’s senior bondholders.

In 2012, Bloomberg Markets magazine included him among its list of the 50 Most Influential figures.

During 2013, Asness endorsed an amicus curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court advocating for same-sex marriage rights in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.

In 2023, he declared his decision to halt financial contributions to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, citing concerns over their hosting of the Palestine Writes festival and what he described as a “departure from genuine freedom of thought, expression and speech.”

Personal life

In 1999, Asness wed Laurel Elizabeth Fraser from Seward, Nebraska, who is the daughter of a retired Methodist minister. Together, they have four children.

In July 2020, he sold his Miami Beach penthouse for $22 million, having originally acquired it from entrepreneur Boris Jordan in May 2018.

External links