Misconceptions About Tax-Aware Long-Short Strategies: The Misleading Analogy to Direct Indexing (Part 3)

AQR has released the third part of its research series on tax-aware long-short (TA LS) strategies, clarifying two common misconceptions. As an active investment strategy, TA LS deliberately retains tracking error to express alpha models and capture excess returns and tax deferral benefits, rather than minimizing tracking error like direct indexing. Portfolio construction for TA LS requires balancing expected returns, risk, costs, and taxes, rather than simply realizing capital losses or deferring capital gains.