AQR Capital Management Opens $100,000 Annual Competition for Applied Finance Papers

GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AQR Capital Management, LLC, (“AQR”) today issued a call for finance papers to be considered for its second annual AQR Insight Award for unpublished research containing significant practical investment insights. The contest offers $100,000 in prize money.

AQR is a global investment-management firm with deep roots in academia and many current and former university faculty members among its professionals. The firm created the AQR Insight Award to recognize researchers and encourage them to further focus their efforts on practical investment strategies that benefit institutional investors and financial advisors.

The competition seeks unpublished papers that explore asset allocation, securities valuation, portfolio construction and implementation, risk management, and other finance topics. Academics and investment managers will assess the papers according to the novelty and acuity of their insights, and, most importantly, the potential practical value of those insights.

Hundreds of papers from 24 countries were entered in the 2012 competition, which was won by Bryan T. Kelly, Ph.D., of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Seth Pruitt, Ph.D., of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for their innovative and practical unpublished research in predicting market returns more accurately over one-month and one-year time horizons.

The AQR Insight Award prize money may be divided among as many as three competing entries depending on the quality of the submissions each year. As many as five finalists will be invited to present their papers in Greenwich, Connecticut, to the committee of judges. That panel consists of senior members of AQR's portfolio management team, most of whom have Ph.D.’s in finance, and many of whom are leading academic finance experts from universities including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, NYU, and the University of Chicago.

The AQR Insight Award Committee consists of Gregor M. Andrade, Ph.D., Clifford S. Asness, Ph.D., Andrea Frazzini, Ph.D., Jacques A. Friedman, Marco Hanig, Ph.D., Ronen Israel, David G. Kabiller, CFA, Michael Katz, Ph.D., John M. Liew, Ph.D., Michael A. Mendelson, Mark L. Mitchell, Ph.D., Tobias J. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Lars N. Nielsen, Lasse H. Pedersen, Ph.D., Todd C. Pulvino, Ph.D., and Andrew J. Sterge, Ph.D.

The 2012 AQR Insight Award winners also will serve on the committee.

Deadline for entries is January 15, 2013. More information and instructions for submitting papers online may be found at www.aqr.com/insightaward.

About The AQR Insight Award

The annual AQR Insight Award, sponsored by AQR Capital Management, recognizes and rewards important, unpublished papers that provide the most significant new practical insights for institutional investors and Registered Investment Advisors. Up to three papers share a $100,000 prize.

About AQR

AQR Capital Management is a global investment management firm employing a disciplined and analytical research process to macroeconomic and fundamental data. AQR’s diversified offerings range from traditional benchmark-oriented long-only strategies to absolute return alternative strategies. AQR manages approximately $63.9 billion worldwide as of September 30, 2012, for institutional investors, including pensions, insurance companies, endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds, as well as financial advisors. Founded in 1998, AQR is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, with offices in Chicago, London and Sydney.