Active funds have been subjected to continuous waves of attack from passive alternatives, and the gist of the argument is that they are in some way inferior to their passive peers. The reasoning is mixed, but the argument’s primary drivers are historic under-performance over the past five years, lower fees and fund costs, and high tracking errors vs what investors are expecting – i.e., you invest in “SA equities”, but often get a completely different animal with an active approach, with returns drifting away from the markets.
Active funds have been subjected to continuous waves of attack from passive alternatives, and the gist of the argument is that they are in some way inferior to their passive peers. The reasoning is mixed, but the argument’s primary drivers are historic under-performance over the past five years, lower fees and fund costs, and high tracking errors vs what investors are expecting – i.e., you invest in “SA equities”, but often get a completely different animal with an active approach, with returns drifting away from the markets.
