Schwab and Fidelity were ahead of Goldman Sachs when it came to long/short fund wizardry for RIAs, but the vampire squid is back with its own offering—perhaps with a competitive edge.

Long-short “Big Four”

• AQR It manages $311 billion, including at least $15 billion through the popular long-short SMA AQR Flex, which it launched in 2021, according to Form ADV.
• By the end of 2025, AQR managed $69 billion in long and short assets.
• Quantinno also launched its first long short SMA for DEALS advisors in 2021. The fund manages more than $10 billion, or 16% of the company’s $60.9 billion under management.
• Aperio does not disclose the value of its individual assets, but manages $152 billion overall, according to Form ADV; an increase of 389.7% from $39 billion over the past 30 months. Year to date, the company has raised more than $15 billion in net new assets, with about $7.5 billion of that in the long-short SMA, according to public data.
• Parametric It manages more than $684 billion, according to Form ADV2. It does not affect the value of long and short accounts under its management.
• Other leading providers include BlackRock-owned Aperio and Morgan Stanley-owned Parametric.