A wise man told me years ago that sometimes the things we see are less important than our way of seeing. As more formerly-active investors begin to use passive vehicles, it’s useful to consider if there’s a distinctly index-centric way of seeing, and what its elements might be. I think that there are at least Read more […]
Yesterday marked 25 years since the launch of the S&P SmallCap 600. Since then, the small-cap equity benchmark delivered an annualized total return of nearly 11% and has become the basis for many investment strategies; around USD 73 billion was indexed to the S&P SmallCap 600 as of the end of 2018. And if we Read more […]
“You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse.” Julius Caesar, Act 3 This morning’s Wall Street Journal declared that “Index Funds Are the New Kings of Wall Street.” The coronation, and similar notes of the “end of an era,” were prompted by Morningstar Read more […]
Over the 15-year period ending March 31, 2019, the biggest 25% of active large-cap equity funds managed about 90% of all the assets under management (AUM) held in active large-cap equity funds. This may suggest that investors’ fund selections skew toward larger funds. But is bigger always better? This topic has been widely debated: although Read more […]
S&P DJI’s Mid-Year 2019 Persistence Scorecard may offer a hint of encouragement for active fund managers. Performance persistence, measured over the three-year period ending March 2019, rose from prior periods. Among the domestic equity funds that were in the top quartile as of March 2017, 11.36% were able to go on and maintain their top-quartile Read more […]
Fund managers typically follow a factor or a style of investing and aim to construct portfolios by balancing active sector exposures and stock-selection risks within a sector. Tracking error is one way to measure a fund’s deviation from its respective benchmark to determine how “active” it is. As measured in the SPIVA® India Year-End 2018 Read more […]
When it comes to investing, market participants often consider past performance to be indicative of future results. The same goes for fund selection. Notwithstanding the evidence showing that most active managers in most regions typically underperformed their benchmarks, consistently beating peers is one way to differentiate a manager’s luck from skill. Here are a few Read more […]
Investors typically flock to active funds to pass on the stock-picking decision making to a seasoned fund manager, with the hope that the fund manager’s experience and stock-picking capabilities will enable the investor’s portfolio to grow at a faster pace than that set by the benchmark. By using this approach, investors are able to circumvent Read more […]
The performance of U.S. equity factors during Q2 was lackluster, with most underperforming the S&P 500, as seen in Exhibit 1. While Minimum Volatility and Low Volatility were notable exceptions, Value, Quality, High Beta, and Momentum all lagged the benchmark – in large part because of their tilt toward smaller companies. Since most factor indices Read more […]
In investing, risk and return are two sides of the same coin; the expected returns of an asset must be accompanied by variation or uncertainty around the outcome of those returns. All else equal, higher-risk assets should be compensated, on average, by higher returns. The same philosophy applies to performance evaluation. The performance of both Read more […]
