Nearly Three-Quarters of Large-Cap Active Managers Trail S&P 500

Actively managed funds continued to drastically trail three Standard & Poor’s indexes over the past five years ended Dec. 31, 2008.

The S&P 500 outperformed 71.9% of actively managed large-cap funds, the S&P MidCap 400 outperformed 75.9% of mid-cap funds, and the S&P SmallCap 600 outperformed 85.5% of small-cap funds.

“The belief that bear markets strongly favor active management is a myth,” said Srikant Dash, global head of research and design at S&P. “A majority of active funds in each of the nine domestic equity style boxes were outperformed by indices during the down markets of 2008. The bear market of 2000 to 2002 showed similar outcomes.”

 

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