Active Mutual Funds Suck Compared To Index Funds
You have probably heard before that most mutual funds do not beat the market. Well, it’s true again, or true still, whichever you prefer. The S&P Dow Jones Indexes (yes, they might be a little biased, but they make their data available, and no one says it’s wrong) put out a report called SPIVA U.S. Year-End 2021 in which they state that nearly 80% of all actively managed domestic equity funds lagged the S&P 1500 in 2021. Even worse, 98.6% of actively managed large-cap growth funds failed to beat the S&P 500 Growth. If that sounds too specific for you, 85% of actively managed large-cap funds trailed the S&P 500. The numbers aren’t much better for other categories. This year, the SPVIA leaves no room to “Yeah, but…” by putting to bed the notion that actively managed mutual funds better handle volatility noting that whether it’s 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, or 20-year risk-adjusted returns, active funds underperform the index. Survivorship Bias The reality is that the situation is actually much worse. Every year approximately 5% of actively managed mutual funds disappear via merger or liquidation. If you think mutual fund companies are merging or liquidating their winning funds, then I have …