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.
Scott Adams damaged his own reputation in his later years. But long before that, the creator of Dilbert was using satire to make a serious, evidence-aligned case against active fund management — reaching tens of millions of readers along the way.
The SPIVA persistence scorecard has become a lightning rod for debate. Robin Wigglesworth shows how active managers’ critique collapses under scrutiny — and why persistence is the Achilles’ heel of their case.
Robin Powell
Sep 19, 20255 min read
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