Quant Hedge Funds Ride Whiplash Markets to First-Half Riches

From Treasury market reversals to trade threats, the first half of 2025 was dominated by policy upheaval and Wall Street angst. The dollar famously fell, while commodities and risky assets were whipsawed. But inside the markets where the world’s biggest quants operate, a funny thing happened: Time-honored trading patterns prevailed.

Markets rewarded the strong over the weak, widening the gap between winners and losers amid a return to what AQR Capital Management’s Cliff Asness has called “basic rational investing.” That wide dispersion, as the industry calls it, proved fertile territory for systematic hedge funds, which scored some of the strongest returns so far in 2025.