The managers running the biggest active funds picked stocks that beat the market in 2025 — and most still lagged their benchmark. A Morningstar do-nothing experiment and a body of academic research explain why active funds underperform even when the picking is good: skilled buying undone by poor selling, the hidden cost of trading, and the incentives that keep managers churning. The UK evidence points the same way.
How much of your portfolio should be in stocks? It's one of investing's most important questions — and the standard answer is costing the average investor the equivalent of 2% of their lifetime consumption. Yale economists have finally built something better, and it fits in a spreadsheet.
Robin Powell
Mar 138 min read
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