CLIFF ASNESS: 'You're Giving Me That Look That I Get When I Talk To Women About Quant Stuff'

Quant fund manager Cliff Asness dropped a sexist line while talking about "quant stuff" with Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg Television.

"So yeah, you're giving me that look that I get when when I talk to women about quant stuff," Asness said to Ruhle during the first few minutes of the interview.

She called him out on it.

He backed it up saying he was only making fun of himself in college.

"Two minutes in, and I'm getting sexist by accident. Just to be clear, that was me making fun of myself in college."

Here's a transcript to give it some context.

Asness: Now, the way I invest and AQR invests, we are quantitative...We tend to take many different positions and they tend to be offsetting positions. So we certainly take risks. I won't pretend that's not riskless, but we try very hard-succeed more often than we don't, but not alway-not to make what we do about what happens in the Ukraine. To have offsetting positions. So for me, when something happens in the Ukraine, it's going to affect my portfolio, but for me this is a weird concept-I shouldn't know how.

Ruhle: One more time?

Asness: OK, let's say you're market neutral. You're long a bunch of things. You're short a bunch of things. You think these things are better than these things.

Ruhle: Ah huh

Asness: If the world is good, you're going to make money on the longs more than the shorts. And if the world is bad they're going to go down less. If something happens, it's going to scramble the whole thing.

Ruhle: Yes

Asness: I still hope to make money. But I wasn't betting on that thing. I wasn't calling the Ukraine. So yeah, you're giving me that look that I get when when I talk to women about quant stuff.

Ruhle: Oh really? Are you hitting me with sexist line right there...Let's just have a time out right there...Sorry, this is how it goes. 'When I talk to women about quant stuff... I mean seriously..I'm like ringing a foul ball bell...

Asness: Two minutes in, and I'm getting sexist by accident. Just to be clear, that was me making fun of myself in college.

Ruhle: [laugh] Alright.

We've included some screenshots of the reaction: