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Investing April 21, 2009
Indexes Outdo Active Managers over Market Cycle
April 21, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The year-end 2008
results for the Standard & Poor's Index Versus Active
Fund Scorecard (SPIVA) indicate the majority of active fund
managers underperformed benchmarks across all categories over
the past five years.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
According to an S&P news release, over the five-year market cycle from 2004 to 2008, the SPIVA scorecard shows that 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. S&P says these results are similar to that of the previous five-year cycle from 1999 to 2003.
SPIVA results are similar for international equity and fixed income funds, the announcement said. Benchmark indexes outperformed a majority of actively managed fixed income funds in all categories over a five-year horizon. The five-year benchmark relative shortfall ranged from 2% – 3% annually for municipal bond funds to 1% – 5% annually for investment grade bond funds.
Among international equity funds, indexes outperformed a majority of actively managed non-U.S. equity funds over the past five years in the four categories studied, including emerging market funds.
“The belief that bear markets strongly favor active management is a myth,” says Srikant Dash, Global Head of Research & Design at Standard & Poor’s, in the announcement. “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.”
The year-end results are here .