RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Practical Applications of Smart Beta or Smart Alpha? JF Practical Applications FD Institutional Investor Journals SP 1 OP 4 DO 10.3905/pa.2016.4.2.168 VO 4 IS 2 A1 Kenneth Lillelund Winther A1 Søren Resen Steenstrup A1 Howard Moore YR 2016 UL https://pm-research.com/content/4/2/1.3.abstract AB Smart Beta or Smart Alpha? Kenneth Lillelund Winther Søren Resen Steenstrup Smart beta offers passive implementation, low fees, transparency and potentially better risk-adjusted returns relative to both traditional capitalization-weighted benchmarks and actively managed funds. But are smart beta strategies a replacement for active managers? Kenneth Winther of Tryg in Denmark and hiscolleague Søren Steenstrup felt that the research on smart beta’s superior performances was focused on US retail investors, not institutional investors.In Smart Beta or Smart Alpha? they explain how they constructed actively managed institutional equity portfolios to capture the most widely used risk factors in smart beta strategies: value, size, low volatility and momentum. They found that other than the momentum portfolio, the actively managed portfolios generated superior absolute and risk-adjusted return, even after costs. They call this smart alpha.