Passive | Traditional Active | Rule-Based | |
Investment Decision-Making |
No Active Investing | Active Investing (Mostly Qualitative) |
Active Investing (Only Quantitative) |
Objective | Market/Index Return | Generate Outperformance |
Generate Outperformance |
Use of Factors | Depends on the Benchmark Index |
Not very Predominant | Predominant |
Portfolio Characteristics | Same as Benchmark | Different from Benchmark |
Different from Benchmark |
Factor Investing is known by many names… Rule-based Active Investing, Quantitative Investing, Quants, Smart Beta, and Smart Alpha are a few commonly used terms
Factors are the parameters based on which professionals make investment decisions.