This article shows that it can take a long period of time until research knowledge finds its application in practice and get disseminated as innovation trend. Factor-based investing is such an example. Having its developing roots in the nineties, it took more than two decades until this approach was detected by the by investment community. The goal of this article is to recall the definition of factor investing, present its historical evolvement and motivate its recent break-through and current trend among investment practitioners (known also under the notion smart beta). It aims at familiarizing with this investment approach from a practical perspective and highlighting its diversifying benefits in a portfolio context with the potential to outperform the market on risk-adjusted basis.

中文翻译：

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投资创新趋势：因子投资

本文表明，研究知识在实践中得到应用并作为创新趋势得到传播可能需要很长时间。基于因子的投资就是这样一个例子。其发展根源于九十年代，经过二十多年的时间，这种方法才被投资界发现。本文的目的是回顾因子投资的定义，展示其历史演变并激发投资从业者（也称为智能贝塔概念）最近的突破和当前趋势。它旨在从实用的角度熟悉这种投资方法，并突出其在投资组合背景下的多元化优势，并有可能在风险调整基础上跑赢市场。