In a recent note to clients, AQR’s founder Cliff Asness asked for perseverance and forbearance as the firm slogs through a rough patch. This according to an article in Institutional Investor.

“When things got rough for AQR about sixteen months ago,” the article reports, “the quantitative investment firm was closing strategies due to excess demand.” In his note, Asness explained the firm’s period of weak performance as a “tale of woe for our equity strategies” and asked clients to stay the course, asserting that the firm’s strategies are sound.

Asness references the legendary Warren Buffett: “one of the secrets of Buffett’s success is that he takes a lot of volatility. In fact, he runs a portfolio with volatility generally well north of the S&P 500…The real magic skill of his is that despite some fairly horrific and none-too-short relative and absolute return periods, he’s stuck with this style, and his risk level, like grim death.”