BlackRock Systematic celebrates 40 years of innovation
INVESTMENT STRATEGY

Systematic Investing

By combining the power of big data, data science, and deep human expertise to modernize the way we invest, systematic investing is unlocking new ways to seek consistent portfolio outcomes in an evolving market landscape.
Explore Systematic strategies Explore Systematic strategies

Investing, evolved

Systematic strategies provide investors core income building blocks with lower risk. A dedicated focus on income generation and beta management aims to provide consistent returns, while research and innovation may drive potential outperformance.

Human x machine

Innovative investment insights are validated through rigorous quantitative testing—amplifying the decision-making of our investment experts.

Engineered for scale

Technology-driven process helps scale investment insights across vast sets of securities, enabling high-breadth portfolios for equities, fixed income, and alternatives.

Targeted outcomes

Systematic tools help our investors balance complex risk and return trade-offs with precision—targeting the investment outcomes that you expect.

Explore Systematic strategies

BlackRock’s systematic alternative strategies seek differentiated risk and return profiles with a low correlation to broad asset classes to help diversify portfolios.

Seek diversification Seek core alpha Seek income
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Disclosure

The performance quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than the original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. Performance data current to the most recent month end may be obtained by visiting www.iShares.com or www.blackrock.com.

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40th Anniversary Video Transcript

Raffaele Savi, Global Head of BlackRock Systematic

I like to think that team has been -- active for over 40 years and I've been here for at least half of those.

Jeff Shen, PhD, Co-head and Co-CIO of Systematic Active Equity

I think, one thing that could be surprising is, how smart people are, but also how nice people are.

Ronald Kahn, PhD, Global Head of Systematic Investment Research

You know, one of the great things about the investment business is we do bring in people with a lot of different backgrounds, and that makes it I mean, I think it helps us make better investment decisions, but I also think it makes it a more interesting place to work.

Tom Parker, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Systematic Fixed Income

You know, I think the most interesting thing is that we've always worried when people leave, we go, how are we going to replace them? What are we going to do? But, you know, quantitative techniques have one advantage is, the insights don't go down in the elevator. They stay in your model. And I always call them the ghost in the machine.

Raffaele:

We work really hard to turn innovation into consistency.

Ron:

We’re really a group that turns, you know, basically turns research and data into alpha.

And so research is at the heart of what we do. And so we have to keep innovating because the ideas that we use, they're all about informational advantages. So if you buy most Blackrock systematic products there's not a risk premia or behavioral, anomaly component to them. Most of what we do is informational advantage.

We identify data that tells us things that the market doesn't understand, but we know the market figures these things out eventually. So for us, we always need to be coming up with new things. And so I think we've never had a stronger culture of innovation and creativity that we have now.

Jeff:

Clients look at BlackRock and think it's a big place. So we always say that, while it's a big place at the same time, it's all about delivering the benefit of a scale for our clients. How can we leverage a scale of BlackRock, of Systematic, for the benefit of our clients?

And I think we can think of all this benefit of a scale in multiple dimensions, in a sense, and allow us to really get data that we wouldn't be able to get before, to really allow us to trade much more efficiently for our clients to leverage the benefit the scale, and also to have a diverse team that can cut across multiple disciplines, not only having the best of a computer scientist in the world, but also having the best economists in the world and have them work together to provide solutions for our clients.

Tom:

Alpha is the hardest game in town. You know, you're competing against Nobel Prize winners. You have geniuses, you know, large tech teams. And it's just everybody wants to be in that game and it's a zero sum game. And so that's always been the challenge. And we even gave ourselves two harder challenges.

So alpha is this amazingly hard challenge, doing alpha in fixed income where there's very little idiosyncratic risk is even a bigger challenge. And then saying you can actually gonna be market neutral is kind of an amazing challenge. And sometimes you kind of wish, oh, maybe we shoulda compromised some more or added more factor exposure out of more beta.

But there also is just a great feeling of satisfaction when you actually get things that work and you go, wow, we're competing with the best people in the world, the best finance people in the world, and winning.

Raffaele:

It's remarkable, I feel that truly the best is always yet to come. The best is always our next idea our next iteration. We've done incredible work, that's the team. I've been fortunate to be part of that team where a lot of people did a lot of incredible work-- there's so many more things that this team can do so I'm looking forward to all the future milestones.

Investing involves risks, including possible loss of principal.

Stock and bond values fluctuate in price so the value of your investment can go down depending upon market conditions. The two main risks related to fixed income investing are interest rate risk and credit risk. Typically, when interest rates rise, there is a corresponding decline in the market value of bonds. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the issuer of the bond will not be able to make principal and interest payments. The principal on mortgage- or asset-backed securities may be prepaid at any time, which will reduce the yield and market value of these securities. Obligations of US Government agencies and authorities are supported by varying degrees of credit but generally are not backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Investments in non-investment-grade debt securities (high-yield bonds or junk bonds) may be subject to greater market fluctuations and risk of default or loss of income and principal than securities in higher rating categories. Income from municipal bonds may be subject to state and local taxes and at times the alternative minimum tax.

The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. Investments named within this material may not necessarily be held in any accounts managed by BlackRock. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Statements concerning financial market trends are based on current market conditions, which will fluctuate. There is no guarantee that these investment strategies will perform well under all market conditions. Outlook and strategies are subject to change without notice.

Prepared by BlackRock Investment LLC. Member FINRA. © 2025 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BLACKROCK is a trademark of BlackRock, Inc. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

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Redefining investing: 40 years of systematic innovation

For decades,1 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 reimagining what’s possible in modern investing.

Discover alpha reimagined Discover alpha reimagined

Why BlackRock Systematic

We seek to deliver solutions that address client portfolio needs—whether it’s outperformance in core exposures, income, and/or diversification.

$317
Billion AUM across equities, fixed income, and alternatives
Increase300
+ Unstructured data sources utilized
Increase40
+ Year track record of innovation in systematic investing
Increase1,000
+ Alpha signals helping to drive investment insights
Increase200
+ People including investment experts and technologists
Increase45
+ Global developed and emerging markets covered

BlackRock Systematic, as of 3/31/2025. For illustrative purposes only.

Frequently asked questions

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There is no guarantee that research capabilities will contribute to a positive investment outcome.

Systematic Investment Process Video Script

Systematic investment process [Title card]

The world is more data-driven than ever before. Our systematic process leverages vast sets of data, both traditional and alternative, to provide investment insights faster, at greater scale and with more granularity. We score and rank thousands of securities daily to help make investment decisions in real time, based on company fundamentals, market sentiment and macroeconomic themes.

Our fundamental signals perform the same analysis a traditional security analyst might. Our models leverage data and technology to systematically evaluate thousands of securities. Using alternative data, such as internet search, transaction activity, and geolocation data, we score the attractiveness of investment opportunities against more traditional accounting measures.

Our sentiment signals recognize factors other than fundamental strength can influence returns over shorter time frames. Sentiment signals analyze a broad range of market views from sell side 1analysts, company management, and other investors. Electronic text forms a large part of the underlying data that drives these insights and seeks to enable our models to identify where analysts and management are more positive (or negative) on a company’s outlook.
Our macroeconomic signals seek to form a view across groups of securities rather than individual companies. For example, we analyze the impact of positive hiring trends or adverse inflationary pressures across a universe of securities. We evaluate the impact of macroeconomic data among countries, industries, and equity styles, such as value and growth.

The final score for every security is a weighted combination of all signals, blending the views across these insights.

The final “alpha” score represents our assessment of the return potential of each security relative to all the others within the investible universe.

Portfolio Construction [Title Card]

Our investment process2 seeks to systematically capture the drivers of future returns, to create a portfolio that seeks to maximizes exposure to our signal views. We construct portfolios starting with these final alpha scores and size positions aligned with these scores. A market neutral portfolio would hold a long position3 in securities with a positive score, and a short position4 in securities with a negative score.

However, this doesn’t tell us anything about risk and implementation frictions such as transaction costs and constraints. To account for this, we take into consideration the expected return of a position, alongside an assessment of its potential risk using a multi-factor risk model.

Whether the portfolio being generated is a market neutral hedge fund designed to deliver an uncorrelated source of alpha, or a long only portfolio seeking to outperform a broad index of market exposure, the process is identical. The final output is intended to capture the broadest possible opportunity set within the target market, as we seek to achieve the best possible tradeoff between risk and return net of transaction costs. 

[DISCLAIMERS] 

There is no guarantee that a positive investment outcome will be achieved.

While the investment approach described herein seeks to manage risk, risk cannot be eliminated. 

For investors in Italy: This document is marketing material. Before investing please read the Prospectus and the PRIIPs KID available on www.blackrock.com/it, which contain a summary of investors’ rights. 

Risk Warnings 

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. 

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product or strategy. 

Changes in the rates of exchange between currencies may cause the value of investments to diminish or increase. Fluctuation may be particularly marked in the case of a higher volatility fund and the value of an investment may fall suddenly and substantially. Levels and basis of taxation may change from time to time and depend on personal individual circumstances. 

The strategies discussed are strictly for illustrative and educational purposes and are not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. There is no guarantee that any strategies discussed will be effective.

This material is prepared by BlackRock and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by BlackRock, its officers, employees or agents. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any securities, BlackRock funds or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Investment involves risks. Past performance is not an indication for the future performance.

In the UK and Non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries: this is Issued by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue, London, EC2N 2DL. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7743 3000. Registered in England and Wales No. 02020394. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority website for a list of authorised activities conducted by BlackRock.

In the European Economic Area (EEA): this is Issued by BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. is authorised and regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Registered office Amstelplein 1, 1096 HA, Amsterdam, Tel: 020 –549 5200, Tel: 31-20-549-5200. Trade Register No. 17068311 For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded.

In Italy: For information on investor rights and how to raise complaints please go to https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/investor-right available in Italian.

In South Africa: Please be advised that BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited is an authorised Financial Services provider with the South African Financial Services Board, FSP No. 43288.

In Singapore, this is issued by BlackRock (Singapore) Limited (Co. registration no. 200010143N). This advertisement or publication has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. 

In Hong Kong, this material is issued by BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited and has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

In South Korea,

this information is issued by BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited. This material and the BlackRock website (www.blackrock.com/kr) have not been reviewed by the Financial Supervisory Service in Korea. 

In Australia, issued by BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited ABN 13 006 165 975 AFSL 230 523 (BIMAL). The material provides general information only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation, needs or circumstances.

Before making any investment decision, you should assess whether the material is appropriate for you and obtain financial advice tailored to you having regard to your individual objectives, financial situation, needs and circumstances. Refer to BIMAL’s Financial Services Guide on its website for more information. This material is not a financial product recommendation or an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any financial product in any jurisdiction.

Any research in this document has been procured and may have been acted on by BlackRock for its own purpose. The results of such research are being made available only incidentally. The views expressed do not constitute investment or any other advice and are subject to change. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any company in the BlackRock Group or any part thereof and no assurances are made as to their accuracy.

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to anyone to invest in any BlackRock funds and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer.

Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC. Member FINRA. 

© 2024 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights reserved. BLACKROCK is a trademark of BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

1 Sell side: refers to a portion of the financial industry that issues, sells, or trades securities in the public market.

2 Source: BlackRock, 2024. Investment process is subject to change and is provided here for illustrative purposes

3 Long position: A long position refers to the purchase of an asset with the expectation that its value will increase over time.

4 Short position: A short position refers to borrowing a security, selling it, then buying it back later at a lower price to return to the broker and keep the difference.

There is no guarantee that research capabilities will contribute to a positive investment outcome.

Systematic Investment Process Video Script

Systematic investment process [Title card]

The world is more data-driven than ever before. Our systematic process leverages vast sets of data, both traditional and alternative, to provide investment insights faster, at greater scale and with more granularity. We score and rank thousands of securities daily to help make investment decisions in real time, based on company fundamentals, market sentiment and macroeconomic themes.

Our fundamental signals perform the same analysis a traditional security analyst might. Our models leverage data and technology to systematically evaluate thousands of securities. Using alternative data, such as internet search, transaction activity, and geolocation data, we score the attractiveness of investment opportunities against more traditional accounting measures.

Our sentiment signals recognize factors other than fundamental strength can influence returns over shorter time frames. Sentiment signals analyze a broad range of market views from sell side 1analysts, company management, and other investors. Electronic text forms a large part of the underlying data that drives these insights and seeks to enable our models to identify where analysts and management are more positive (or negative) on a company’s outlook.
Our macroeconomic signals seek to form a view across groups of securities rather than individual companies. For example, we analyze the impact of positive hiring trends or adverse inflationary pressures across a universe of securities. We evaluate the impact of macroeconomic data among countries, industries, and equity styles, such as value and growth.

The final score for every security is a weighted combination of all signals, blending the views across these insights.

The final “alpha” score represents our assessment of the return potential of each security relative to all the others within the investible universe.

Portfolio Construction [Title Card]

Our investment process2 seeks to systematically capture the drivers of future returns, to create a portfolio that seeks to maximizes exposure to our signal views. We construct portfolios starting with these final alpha scores and size positions aligned with these scores. A market neutral portfolio would hold a long position3 in securities with a positive score, and a short position4 in securities with a negative score.

However, this doesn’t tell us anything about risk and implementation frictions such as transaction costs and constraints. To account for this, we take into consideration the expected return of a position, alongside an assessment of its potential risk using a multi-factor risk model.

Whether the portfolio being generated is a market neutral hedge fund designed to deliver an uncorrelated source of alpha, or a long only portfolio seeking to outperform a broad index of market exposure, the process is identical. The final output is intended to capture the broadest possible opportunity set within the target market, as we seek to achieve the best possible tradeoff between risk and return net of transaction costs. 

[DISCLAIMERS] 

There is no guarantee that a positive investment outcome will be achieved.

While the investment approach described herein seeks to manage risk, risk cannot be eliminated. 

For investors in Italy: This document is marketing material. Before investing please read the Prospectus and the PRIIPs KID available on www.blackrock.com/it, which contain a summary of investors’ rights. 

Risk Warnings 

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and are not guaranteed. Investors may not get back the amount originally invested. 

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product or strategy. 

Changes in the rates of exchange between currencies may cause the value of investments to diminish or increase. Fluctuation may be particularly marked in the case of a higher volatility fund and the value of an investment may fall suddenly and substantially. Levels and basis of taxation may change from time to time and depend on personal individual circumstances. 

The strategies discussed are strictly for illustrative and educational purposes and are not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. There is no guarantee that any strategies discussed will be effective.

This material is prepared by BlackRock and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by BlackRock, its officers, employees or agents. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any securities, BlackRock funds or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Investment involves risks. Past performance is not an indication for the future performance.

In the UK and Non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries: this is Issued by BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 12 Throgmorton Avenue, London, EC2N 2DL. Tel: + 44 (0)20 7743 3000. Registered in England and Wales No. 02020394. For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority website for a list of authorised activities conducted by BlackRock.

In the European Economic Area (EEA): this is Issued by BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. is authorised and regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Registered office Amstelplein 1, 1096 HA, Amsterdam, Tel: 020 –549 5200, Tel: 31-20-549-5200. Trade Register No. 17068311 For your protection telephone calls are usually recorded.

In Italy: For information on investor rights and how to raise complaints please go to https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/investor-right available in Italian.

In South Africa: Please be advised that BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited is an authorised Financial Services provider with the South African Financial Services Board, FSP No. 43288.

In Singapore, this is issued by BlackRock (Singapore) Limited (Co. registration no. 200010143N). This advertisement or publication has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. 

In Hong Kong, this material is issued by BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited and has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

In South Korea,

this information is issued by BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited. This material and the BlackRock website (www.blackrock.com/kr) have not been reviewed by the Financial Supervisory Service in Korea. 

In Australia, issued by BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited ABN 13 006 165 975 AFSL 230 523 (BIMAL). The material provides general information only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation, needs or circumstances.

Before making any investment decision, you should assess whether the material is appropriate for you and obtain financial advice tailored to you having regard to your individual objectives, financial situation, needs and circumstances. Refer to BIMAL’s Financial Services Guide on its website for more information. This material is not a financial product recommendation or an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any financial product in any jurisdiction.

Any research in this document has been procured and may have been acted on by BlackRock for its own purpose. The results of such research are being made available only incidentally. The views expressed do not constitute investment or any other advice and are subject to change. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any company in the BlackRock Group or any part thereof and no assurances are made as to their accuracy.

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer or invitation to anyone to invest in any BlackRock funds and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer.

Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC. Member FINRA. 

© 2024 BlackRock, Inc. All Rights reserved. BLACKROCK is a trademark of BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.

1 Sell side: refers to a portion of the financial industry that issues, sells, or trades securities in the public market.

2 Source: BlackRock, 2024. Investment process is subject to change and is provided here for illustrative purposes

3 Long position: A long position refers to the purchase of an asset with the expectation that its value will increase over time.

4 Short position: A short position refers to borrowing a security, selling it, then buying it back later at a lower price to return to the broker and keep the difference.

  • BlackRock integrates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into its systematic investing processes. AI helps analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and generate insights that inform investment decisions, ultimately aiming to enhance performance and manage risks.

  • We believe that systematic investing has the potential to deliver consistent alpha to investors, regardless of market cycles or macro conditions. There are several advantages ranging from scale, to repeatability, to flexibility.

  • Systematic investing can be beneficial in various market conditions. Its data-driven approach allows for adaptability and responsiveness to market changes, making it a valuable strategy during periods of volatility and uncertainty.

  • Consistent alpha refers to the ability to generate returns that consistently outperform a benchmark over time. This is important because steady, incremental alpha can significantly enhance a portfolio's performance over time, maximizing returns per unit of risk across market cycles.

  • Systematic investing carries risks such as model risk – where the models used may not perform as expected – and data risk – where inaccurate or insufficient data can lead to poor investment decisions.