passive investing
Julia VanDeren shares some insights on giving presentations and writing cover letters; Ben Carlson, CFA, discusses how to determine which hedge funds to invest in; Mark Harrison, CFA, curates the best content on smart beta and factor investing; and C. Thomas Howard and Jason Voss, CFA, offer some advice on how to revive active equity, in the top Enterprising Investor Posts from March.
Collectively, active equity delivers no value to its investors and, in fact, extracts value from them. So what can be done to launch an active equity renaissance?
The end of the year is a good time to look back and take stock. What Enterprising Investor articles did readers find most compelling in 2016? The results are illuminating. Our top content runs the gamut from the granular — tightly focused, practice-oriented material on starting a firm and what to read to stay informed — to more "big picture" analysis on negative interest rates and the ongoing active vs. passive debate. Taken together, they reflect the currents at work in the investment management profession at both the system-wide and individualized levels.
Highlights from last month include a critique of shareholder value maximization by Anjali Pradhan, CFA; a discussion of the distractions caused by vision-narrowing apps and dysfunctional networks from Mark Harrison, CFA; an analysis of the benefits of hiring a career coach by Julia VanDeren; and Daniel Goleman's take on the the key elements of emotional intelligence as reported by Matthew Borin.
The cold war between passive and active investing has heated up considerably in the last two years, writes Jason Voss, CFA. He offers more insight on this, as well as other picks in this week's edition of Weekend Reads for Investors.
Leading posts from last month explore the active vs. passive debate, the Altman Z-score, the nine-box grid, the utility of hedge funds, and behavioral biases.
Let’s do a simple thought experiment: What would happen if everyone was a passive investor except Warren Buffett?
Leading posts from November include the latest installment in the Dumb Alpha series by Joachim Klement, CFA; a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reading list compiled by Larry Cao, CFA; and an analysis by Jason Voss, CFA, of the potential for a flash crash caused by the confluence of quantitative easing (QE), currency market structure, and other factors.
Every day investors are inundated with noise — almost all of it irrelevant — about what they should do. Then, when there really is something important — information that will genuinely help you achieve better returns — it often gets drowned out. Such is the case with a recent study on the merits of active fund management.
Passive investing is not actually passive. When looked at this way, it means there are important lessons for active investors. Examples include the hidden story behind market capitalization and the importance of low turnover. This also opens passive investing up to criticism regarding the free passes given to it in terms of risk, cost, and momentum.