Fund Evaluator:

AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I Overview

AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I (ARCIX) is an actively managed Commodities Commodities Broad Basket fund. AQR Funds launched the fund in 2012.

The investment seeks total return. The fund pursues its investment objective by allocating assets among various commodity sectors (including agricultural, energy, livestock, softs (e.g., non-grain agricultural products such as coffee, sugar, cocoa, etc.), precious and base metals and carbon pricing). The fund’s investments include alternative commodities (i.e. those commodities that are not typically included in large, widely recognized commodity indices). The fund will obtain exposure to commodity sectors by investing in commodity-linked derivatives, directly or through its investment in the Subsidiary. It is non-diversified.

About AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I (ARCIX)

There are 7 members of the management team with an average tenure of 3.03 years: John Liew (2023), Jordan Brooks (2022), John Huss (2025), Erik Stamelos (2023), Fred Liu (2024), James Lofton (2024), Clifford Asness (2022). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg Commodity TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I has 243 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 96.3% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I is part of the Real Assets global asset class and is within the Commodities fund group. AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I has 0.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is -1.0%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 21.5% (21.5% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I has 17.7% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $1 billion in total assets, which is above the $481 million average for the Commodities Broad Basket category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

ARCIX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Commodities Broad Basket category. AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I has an expense ratio of 1.04%, which is 6% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. A portfolio turnover rate cannot be currently calculated for AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 73% for the Commodities Broad Basket category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I returned 5.6%, which earned it a grade of F, as the Commodities Broad Basket category had an average return of 6.9%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I has a trailing yield of 11.60%, which is above the 9.29% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy I Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 15.9%, 6.6 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 32.0% over the past year (grade of D), 13.1% over the past three years (grade of B) and 14.4% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 11.4% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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