Veteran quant manager AQR Capital Management delivered robust across-the-board returns in September across multiple strategies. Its flagship multi-strategy fund, Apex Strategy, gained about 4.0% for the month and is up ~15.6% year-to-date. Meanwhile, AQR’s Delphi Long-Short Equity strategy added ~2.9% in September, and its Helix (trend / alternative markets) and Managed Futures volatility strategies posted positive monthly returns as well.

These gains come at a moment when quant and alternative strategies are under scrutiny for reliance on data, model risk, and crowded factor exposures. Yet AQR’s diversified strategy stack appears to be weathering turbulence better than many pure quant shops.

Still, the firm isn’t immune to the broader pressures in the hedge fund ecosystem: fee renegotiation, capital concentration, and the challenge of sustaining alphas in a more efficient, AI-inflected environment loom large. In such a regime, both depth of models and flexibility to rotate are advantages.

For institutional allocators, AQR’s performance reinforces one thesis: scale and diversification across complementary strategies can create a more resilient “hedge fund of one.” But as more capital chases quant and AI-driven strategies, vigilance will be required to avoid overcrowding risks.