Handbook of Finance: Investment Management and Financial Management

Chapter 29. Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management

ANDREW ALFORD, PhD

Managing Director, Quantitative Investment Strategies, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

ROBERT JONES, CFA

Managing Director, and Chief Investment Officer for Quantitative Equity, Quantitative Investment Strategies, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

TERRENCE LIM, PhD, CFA

Managing Director, Quantitative Investment Strategies, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Abstract: Equity portfolio management has evolved considerably since the 1950s. Portfolio theories and asset pricing models, in conjunction with new data sources and powerful computers, have revolutionized the way investors select stocks and create portfolios. Consequently, what was once mostly an art is increasingly becoming a science: Loose rules of thumb are being replaced by rigorous research and complex implementation. While greatly expanding the frontiers of finance, these advances have not necessarily made it any easier for portfolio managers to outperform the market. The two approaches to equity portfolio management are the traditional approach and the quantitative approach. Despite the contrasting of these two approaches by their advocates, they actually share many traits such as applying economic reasoning to identify a small set of key drivers of equity values, using observable data to quantify these key drivers, using expert judgment to develop ways to map these key drivers into the final stock-selection decision, and evaluating their performance over time. ...