Fund performance

Once a top-performing fund with assets well over double today’s value, Templeton’s flagship bond fund has been diminished by the march of passive investments.

The firm now plans to integrate sustainability criteria into portfolio construction and exit investments with high risks from ESG-related issues.

Nearly all of the fixed-income funds held short term debt.

Assets under management at Nancy Prior’s group, which includes bond and money market funds, have grown from $714 billion under her leadership.

The tricky part is educating clients on how to recognize what constitutes underperformance and overperformance.

Timely trading in less-heralded semiconductor markers and firms committed to energy without fossil fuels produced a 54% total return last year, data show.

It’s the second straight year that Cliff Asness’ quant firm is announcing layoffs.

The $6 billion fund saw almost 3 million shares hit the tape after DoubleLine’s CEO touted its potential for retirees in his annual markets webcast.

In what was a stellar year for corporates, governments nearly missed the list entirely.

It was the biggest annual leap for strategies focused on corporate or government debt since 2014, boosting assets to more than $800 billion, data show.

The bank created a new unit that houses its Marcus online lending business and credit-card venture with Apple.

ETFs tracking themes — such as robotics, blockchain and cannabis — closed the year just 1% higher than where it started.

Although passive has steadily lured cash from active, this year assets in indexed equity funds topped those in active stock funds for the first time ever.

Data reported by the Investment Company Institute.

More than half of them track the industry’s top-performing category.

A major driver of growth has been the “increased awareness” of advantages like tax efficiency, liquidity and transparency, according to Bank of America.

Despite the exodus, all of the mutual funds and ETFs on the list posted net gains for the year.

“There’s less performance chasing than you saw in the past, and that’s a positive thing,” an expert says.

The fund gained 22% last month, beating more than 1,970 rivals.

Macro products that trade everything from euros to oil have struggled amid soaring stock valuations and ultra-low interest rates.