BlackRock Systematic's investment capabilities span equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes to help provide tech-centered solutions designed to target specific risk and diversification characteristics.
Systematic investing
Risk management and diversification cannot fully eliminate the risk of investment loss.
Portfolios powered by technology
Systematic investing combines alternative data, data science and deep human expertise to help modernize the way we invest and construct portfolios. By leveraging data-driven insights, scientific testing of investment ideas, and advanced computer modeling techniques, we constantly innovate new approaches as we seek to improve investment outcomes on behalf of our clients.
Next generation portfolio construction
AI-enabled decision-making and alpha research is paired with market expertise to maximize the economic soundness of investment ideas.
Data-driven insights
Detailed quantitative attribution helps constantly refine portfolios and targets distinct sources of return aiming to deliver specific investment outcomes.
Scientific testing
Quantitative data-analysis techniques yield scaled insights across large sets of securities, enabling high-breadth portfolios.
Disciplined construction
Scientific testing helps validate return potential, while simultaneously mitigating behavioral basis and cognitive errors.
Continuous refinement
Portfolio positions sized by disciplined risk budgeting and optimization processes seeks to balance a complex set of trade-offs in portfolio construction.
Using big data, AI, and human expertise to reimagine alpha
Today’s markets require us to rethink traditional investing methods, and an informational advantage can be key. With proprietary research, technology, and experienced investors at every step, our BlackRock Systematic team extracts signals from a sea of data – consistently transforming insights into alpha opportunities for our clients.
Systematic insights
Novel risks and sources of volatility
Apr 1, 2025 | By Systematic Investing
This interview explores whether AI and machine learning are mitigating or introducing new risks in portfolios. It also examines the role of data in identifying and managing novel sources of volatility.
Exit predictions for venture capital over different economic regimes
Mar 12, 2025 | By Systematic Investing
This research models probabilities of exit for venture capital portfolio companies, where exits are defined by going public or being acquired, across different regimes.
Systematic Insights into Private Equity Investing
Nov 11, 2024 | By Systematic Investing
This research presents a framework for late-stage venture and growth equity investing, showing how quantitative tools and alternative data used in public markets may help forecast positive outcomes in growth equity investments.
Extreme Weather and Retirement Savings
Jul 2, 2024 | By Systematic Investing
How can natural disasters and extreme weather impact investor's ability to save for retirement? Explore more in our Systematic research.
Modeling Models: Factor and Risk Decompositions of Model Portfolios
Jan 8, 2024 | By Systematic Investing
This study examines style factor and risk decompositions of around 700 multi-asset model portfolios. It finds that nearly 50% of active risk stems from style factor exposures, though most style factor loadings are small or negatively exposed.
Climate Alpha with Predictors Also Improving Company Efficiency
Nov 23, 2021 | By Systematic Investing
What are the implications of company characteristics associated with climate change? This research explores the potential impact of reducing carbon emissions and working to improve resource efficiency on excess return potential.
Defensive factor timing
Oct 1, 2019 | By Systematic Investing
Building portfolios that are diversified across macro factors is one of the most effective ways to build portfolio resiliency. Defensive factor positioning is another potential line of defense in extreme market environments.
Factor investing in corporate bonds
May 21, 2019 | By Systematic Investing
In the corporate bond market, investor propensity to reach for yield creates an opportunity for factor-based investors to “reach for safety” following an economic intuition that parallels low-risk factor investing in equities.
Factor investing in emerging market bonds
Oct 4, 2018 | By Systematic Investing
We document empirical insights driving the prices of emerging market bonds. We examine a broad set of macro factors (rates, credit, currency, and equity) and identify these embedded betas as key drivers of excess returns.
Decoding the Markets: A systematic approach to volatility
Apr 22, 2025 | By Systematic Investing
BlackRock’s investment and policy experts examine the impact of uncertainly on markets and how institutions can build dynamic portfolios with alternative strategies to stay nimble amid persistent volatility.
Decoding the markets: Navigating the (new) conundrum
Feb 12, 2025 | By Systematic Investing
Hear how BlackRock's Systematic investment team analyzes current market dynamics, leverages real-time data and AI-enabled models to navigate key U.S. policy uncertainties and uncover global investment opportunities.
Turning data into alpha: 40 years of systematic innovation
For decades,2 BlackRock’s Systematic team has been at the forefront of data-driven investing—transforming research and technology into alpha opportunities. Powered by scale, diverse talent, and a relentless drive to innovate, we’re redefining what’s possible in modern investing. Watch now.
Our Systematic investing team
We believe a successful systematic investment platform must go beyond data and technology—it has to be powered by a talented team with a balance of attributes.
Investment strategies
Our systematic approach to investing can be applied across a spectrum of strategies. We manage both highly diversified and specialized investment capabilities to provide clients with solutions that can compliment their portfolios.
Equities
Our systematic equity strategies are designed to deliver consistent and differentiated alpha opportunities to our clients. Our passion is combining insight and technology seeking to generate compelling benchmark relative or absolute investment returns.
Long-only
Our data-driven insights and technology offer cost-efficient, risk-managed equity solutions aiming to help clients generate returns across an extensive opportunity set.
Partial long/short
Designed to deliver differentiated alpha opportunities by selecting stocks through optimized tilts, we seek to exploit market inefficiencies and minimize uncompensated risks.
Absolute return
Absolute return strategies use distinct sources of return to seek positive absolute returns in equity markets, irrespective of financial conditions.
Fixed income
Systematic fixed income strategies employ differentiated data-driven insights backed by disciplined risk management that seek to deliver differentiated portfolio outcomes to investors.
Enhanced
Enhanced building blocks seek to deliver consistent, high information ratio alpha by combining security selection insights with optimized portfolio construction.
Liquid alternatives
Our investment decisions use multiple, independent and risk management alpha models, seeking enhanced risk-adjusted returns with low correlations to broad asset classes.
Hedge funds
Seek to uncover alpha using relative value, directional and security selection strategies, across markets, with return profiles independent of traditional market betas.
Alternatives
Our liquid alternative strategies seek to generate idiosyncratic alpha, with low correlations to broad asset classes. Our alternative solutions are available across a full spectrum of broad and specialized investment capabilities including multi-strategies, global equity market neutral, and global macro.
Risk parity
Multi-asset strategies built by diversifying across sources of risk rather than by asset class.
Absolute return
Strategies that seek to deliver uncorrelated alpha through long/short investing.
Multi-alternatives
Strategies that employ our differentiated investment ideas using multiple, independent and risk-managed quantitative models, seeking uncorrelated returns across asset classes.
Factors
Factors can be broad and persistent drivers of returns both in and across asset classes. BlackRock has been at the forefront of factor-based investing for decades and continues to innovate new strategies to help address clients’ investment challenges.
U.S. Equity Factor Rotation
Dynamically allocates to U.S. stocks based on their exposures to factors, using proprietary insights and a forecast of near-term alpha potential.
Market Advantage
Macro factor strategy seeking returns with resilience. Portfolio allocations based on risk, not capital, that aim to capture the economic drivers of return.
Style Advantage
Long/short style factor strategy seeking liquid and diversified absolute returns.
