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What is evidence-based investing?

Nobody can establish who first used the phrase 'evidence-based investing', and no regulator defines it. Robin Powell, who was given the name by Larry Swedroe in 2015 and is sometimes wrongly credited with coining it, sets out what it actually means: four tests of what counts as evidence, borrowed from a medical parallel that hit the same crisis twelve years ago. Including where he goes further than a global tracker, and why he holds that position less firmly than he used to.

Robin Powell

Why Nobel Prize-winning economists reject active investing

Eugene Fama is one of several Nobel Prize-winning economists whose research undermines the case for using actively managed funds This is the second article in our 12-part series on Mark Hebner's Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors. If you missed the first instalment on the addictive nature of active investing, catch up before continuing. In traditional recovery programs, the second step involves acknowledging a higher power. For investors trapped i

TEBI

Jun 12, 20253 min read

Active investing: Be honest, are you a little bit addicted?

Active investing feels productive. Buying. Selling. Chasing hot tips. As investors, we think we need to be doing something. But it can easily become compulsive — an addiction that’s fed by financial professionals who profit from keeping us hooked. In his award-winning book, Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors, my IFA colleague Mark Hebner explains why active trading is so tempting — and so destructive. He also sets out a rational alternative to acti

TEBI

Jun 5, 20251 min read

Active vs passive — a journalist's view

JONATHAN CLEMENTS is one of the best-known names in financial journalism. After starting his career writing glowing profiles of star fund managers, he began to see a pattern: most of them failed to deliver over the long run. Raised and educated in England, Clements moved to the United States after graduating from Cambridge University. His early years at Forbes magazine left him sceptical about active management. Even when a fund manager looked like a sure bet, the success rar