Fund Evaluator:

AQR Long-Short Equity N Overview

AQR Long-Short Equity N (QLENX) is an actively managed Nontraditional Equity Long-Short Equity fund. AQR Funds launched the fund in 2013.

The investment seeks capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions, the fund pursues its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets (including borrowings for investment purposes) in equity instruments and equity related and/or derivative instruments. Equity related and/or derivative instruments are investments that provide exposure to the performance of equity instruments, including equity swaps (both single-name and index swaps), equity index futures and exchange-traded funds and similar pooled investment vehicles (collectively, "Equity Derivative Instruments" and together with Equity Instruments, "Instruments").

About AQR Long-Short Equity N (QLENX)

There are 4 members of the management team with an average tenure of 5.70 years: John Huss (2022), Michele Aghassi (2016), Laura Serban (2023), Clifford Asness (2022). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: MSCI World NR USD index with a weighting of 100% and ICE BofA US 3M Trsy Bill TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. AQR Long-Short Equity N has 2645 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 42.0% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

AQR Long-Short Equity N is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Nontraditional Equity fund group. AQR Long-Short Equity N has 10.2% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is -4.7%. There is 10.2% allocated to foreign stock, and -0.6% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 20.0% (20.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). AQR Long-Short Equity N has 49.6% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $454 million in total assets, which is above the $352 million average for the Long-Short Equity 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.

QLENX 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 Long-Short Equity N expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Long-Short Equity category. AQR Long-Short Equity N has an expense ratio of 6.06%, which is 176% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. 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. AQR Long-Short Equity N has a portfolio turnover rate of 296%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 287% for the Long-Short Equity category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, AQR Long-Short Equity N returned 4.6%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Long-Short Equity category had an average return of 2.6%. 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 Long-Short Equity N has a trailing yield of 1.62%, which is above the 1.15% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually and its capital gains 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 Long-Short Equity N Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 0.8%, 6.7 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 16.2% over the past year (grade of C), 24.5% over the past three years (grade of A) and 22.7% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 11.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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