Cliff Asness

What if the secret to beating the market wasn't luck, instinct, or insider whispers-but discipline, data, and the courage to trust the numbers when everyone else panics?

Cliff Asness didn't set out to follow Wall Street's rules. He set out to question them. Armed with a sharp mind and a deep belief in evidence over emotion, he moved from the classrooms of the University of Chicago to the high-stakes world of Goldman Sachs, where he began testing ideas that many dismissed as too academic, too rigid, or simply too different. But Asness saw what others didn't: patterns hidden in plain sight, opportunities buried beneath market noise, and a way to turn theory into real-world results.

This is the story of how one man helped reshape modern investing. From co-founding AQR Capital Management to building a global powerhouse rooted in quantitative strategies, Asness challenged conventional wisdom at every step. He championed factor investing when it was misunderstood, stood by value investing when it fell out of favor, and spoke out-often bluntly-against the herd mentality that drives markets to extremes.

But beyond the numbers and strategies lies something deeper. This book reveals the human side of Cliff Asness-the persistence it took to stay the course during difficult years, the intellectual honesty to admit when things didn't go as planned, and the conviction to keep pushing forward when