Q2 2021
We explore how different levels of a so-called “floor” for bond yields would affect the return generation and diversification properties of bonds. We find that only very restrictive yield floor assumptions would have the potential to materially impact the role of bonds in a portfolio over the next year.
Fixed Income
September 7, 2021
Interest in sustainable investing is now expanding into fixed income. This paper assesses how measures of sustainability/ESG might be relevant for corporate bonds and analyzes how ESG measures can be incorporated into an investment process to achieve the joint object of maximizing risk-adjusted returns and a sustainability target.
Tax Aware
September 2, 2021
In this post, we discuss challenges of wealth preservation and growth faced by high net worth families. While a family that invests with income tax and estate tax efficiency in mind is more likely to achieve its financial legacy goals, the numerical advantages of tax efficiency are quite striking. In addition, we show that there is a significant value in integrating income tax efficiency and estate tax planning.
August 25, 2021
The value spread remains unusually high, which has led investors to be concerned that value may be cheap for a reason. In this short presentation, our Portfolio Solutions Group (PSG) explains how we evaluate this spread and illustrates our view that the current high value spread is forecasting higher expected returns, and not low fundamental growth rates.
Tax Aware
July 28, 2021
We often hear the sentiment that tax-efficient investing just delays the inevitable: Eventually, a day will come when the tax-efficient investor will have to true up on years of deferred taxes. And, with the proposed Biden Tax Plan sending many investors scrambling to plan for higher taxes, we feel that now is as good a time as any to put this long-standing myth to bed.
Fixed Income
July 26, 2021
In this overview of the various factors that influence government bond yields, we show that both in theory and in the data, non-monetary policy factors drive significant variation in yields, particularly at longer maturities. Despite the exceptionally low yield environments we have witnessed, fundamentals continue to drive bond markets.
Factor/Style Investing
July 16, 2021
We offer a novel test of whether an asset pricing model describes expected returns in the absence of mispricing. Our test assumes such a model assigns zero alpha to investment strategies using decade-old information. Prominent multifactor models do not satisfy this condition – while multifactor betas help capture current expected returns on mispriced stocks, persistence in those betas distorts the stocks' implied expected returns after prices correct.
Tax Aware
July 6, 2021
In this post, we expand on our analysis which studies the tax benefits of a hypothetical tax-aware direct indexing strategy with 1% tracking error.
Factor/Style Investing
June 30, 2021
We relate the low risk anomaly in financial markets to the Favorite-Longshot Bias in betting markets and provide novel evidence to both anomalies. Synthesizing the evidence, we study the joint implications from the two settings for a unifying explanation. Rational theories of risk-averse investors with homogeneous beliefs cannot explain the cross-sectional relationship between diversifiable risk and return in betting markets. Rather, we appeal to models of non-traditional preferences or heterogeneous beliefs.
Tax Aware
June 9, 2021
There are two basic ways to invest in a stock market index: you can buy an index fund, or you can directly buy a stock portfolio that tracks the index. If you are a taxable investor, a benefit of the direct approach is that you can harvest losses on individual positions. But how high are those benefits—and what happens to them under the proposed Biden Tax Plan?
AQR Capital Management, LLC, (“AQR”) provides links to third-party websites only as a convenience, and the inclusion of such links does not imply any endorsement, approval, investigation, verification or monitoring by us of any content or information contained within or accessible from the linked sites. If you choose to visit the linked sites, you do so at your own risk, and you will be subject to such sites' terms of use and privacy policies, over which AQR.com has no control. In no event will AQR be responsible for any information or content within the linked sites or your use of the linked sites.
You are about to leave AQR.com and are being re-directed to the {siteName}. Please note that {siteName} site may be subject to rules and regulations that may differ significantly from those to which the AQR website is subject and may not be appropriate for use by residents in all jurisdictions. Your access to and use of the {siteName} site will be subject to the applicable Terms of Use posted on the site.