Has anyone invested in an AQR Flex SMA?

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grkmec
Posts: 286
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:46 am

Has anyone invested in an AQR Flex SMA?

Post by grkmec »

If so, curious to hear about your experience and what your RIA is charging you. Also looking to get an idea of your actual short term capital losses by year. This seems too good to be true.
QBoy
Posts: 229
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 7:09 am

Re: Has anyone invested in an AQR Flex SMA?

Post by QBoy »

I have not invested in this particular product, but I am in a couple of AQR funds. I am mostly in index funds, but I know some of the AQR folk, and they are some of the smartest people in finance I have met. And I think a small amount in zero-beta alternatives makes sense.

Can you describe the AQR Flex SMA strategy? How much of it can a do-it-yourselfer do on his own?
grkmec
Posts: 286
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:46 am

Re: Has anyone invested in an AQR Flex SMA?

Post by grkmec »

AQR Flex SMA has many variants but here is the gist of the F145:

Fund $1mm cash in a separate account in Fidelity via an RIA and AQR runs a long short book SMA that tracks the Russel 3k with about 1.5% tracking error (annual). The account is levered with 145% longs and 45% shorts - so 1.0x beta. AQR aggressively tax harvests the losers on both the long and short side and so this results in perpetual short term capital losses while your account NAV tracks the underlying index. First year expected tax loss is 32% of basis and over 10 years it’s supposed to be 140% cumulative. This turns into a massive tax shield that can shelter capital gains elsewhere across your portfolio.
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