Abstract
This chapter focuses on recent developments in quantitative active equity management. While the antecedents to these developments predate the global financial crisis (GFC), interest in these developments has seemed to increase following the GFC. During this crisis, many quantitative equity stock selection models in many regions of the world faced strong performance headwinds. The standard quantitative model— based on factors such as valuation, investor sentiment, profitability, earnings quality, and so on— generally seemed to sputter. A widespread belief among investors was that weak quantitative equity performance could be attributed to too many strategies using too many of the same factors in the same way; in short, performance degradation could be attributed to overcrowding.