AQR Capital Management, the $142bn quantitative hedge fund led by Cliff Asness, delivered standout returns across its trend-following and multi-strategy platforms in the first half of 2025 — sharply outperforming major industry benchmarks, according to a report by MarketWatch.
The firm’s Helix strategy, which applies trend-following models to harder-to-access alternative assets, gained 7.4% in the first six months of the year, extending its strong run after a near-18% return in 2024.
Helix, which manages $3.7bn, successfully captured equity factor trends including momentum and quality, and posted gains from yield curve steepening trades in developed markets. Positions in emerging market rates and volatility futures also contributed positively, while alternative commodities weighed on performance. The strategy was up 0.4% in June.
AQR’s Managed Futures Full Volatility Strategy meanwhile, with $4.9bn in assets, returned 5.5% over the first half of 2025, despite flat performance in June (+0.1%). The fund, which incorporates both trend and fundamental signals across traditional and alternative markets, demonstrated resilience during H1’s choppy environment. It followed an 11% gain in 2024.
The firm’s Apex fund, a $4.3bn flagship multi-strategy vehicle, surged 11.4% in H1 2025, further cementing AQR’s position as a leader in systematic hedge fund performance this year.
These results come amid widespread underperformance across the trend-following space. The SocGen CTA Index, a key benchmark for managed futures strategies (which includes AQR’s own), declined over 7.5% in the same period, while the SG Trend Index slid around 10%, highlighting the significant dispersion in returns across the sector.
