It’s becoming notoriously difficult for active managers to “beat” markets. A 2020 report by S&P Dow Jones Indices, the de facto scorekeeper of the ongoing active versus passive debate since the first publication of the S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (Spiva), highlights that most active managers fail to beat their passive benchmarks.
In the US, which accounts for 46 per cent of the global equities landscape, data shows that 60 per cent of large cap equity fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 in 2020. It was the 11th straight year the majority of fund managers lost to the market.
