Gesundheit.
Research Affiliates, the well-known investment firm founded by Rob Arnott, has a new name, Syzygy — and some folks will undoubtedly need some assistance pronouncing it. Unless you’ve spent more time than the average person at planetariums, here it is: Siz-uh-gee. It means the near-perfect alignment of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system, which, if nothing else, is pretty interesting.
“I had never heard of the word before,” said Jim Masturzo, chief investment officer at what is now Syzygy Asset Management. “I’ve met one person who knew what it meant prior to us naming it.”
Three Body Problem
This rebranding didn’t come out of the blue. The company recently sold its RAFI Indices business to TMX Group in a $490 million deal, and that included the Research Affiliates name, Masturzo said. Shedding the index business will let Syzygy focus on managing money, but the decision to sell also reflects the difficulties in competing with giant data providers. “We decided about a year and a half ago that we needed to do something … The economics of the index business have really changed over the past five or 10 years,” Masturzo said. The change is also a new chapter, he noted. “It is an opportunity to rebrand everything. It’s a fresh start, but the company is not new.”
A look at its management business:
- The Newport Beach, California firm manages about $30 billion in assets and has subadvisory partnerships with Pimco and Russell Investments. Two small ETFs the firm had launched in 2024 and 2025 appear to be part of the RAFI acquisition, however.
- Syzygy is considering equity and multiasset derivatives-based long-short strategies for its first new products under the rebranded name. It has not ruled out ETF launches in the future, Masturzo said.
Ducks in a Row: The idea of alignment resonates with quantitative management, so the new name was a natural fit, even if few people knew the word, Masturzo said. Arnott wasn’t the one who pitched the new title, but he liked it. “Rob is an eclipse chaser. He’s very much into astronomy,” Masturzo said. “I’ve learned every time there’s a new moon, that’s a syzygy … We’ve really been leaning into this idea of alignment. It’s really core to how we think about creating product.”
