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.
New research from the *Review of Financial Studies* covering 56 years of data and eight asset classes shows that the popular inflation hedge — shares, gold, property funds, commodities — only protects against energy inflation. The slow, grinding core inflation that actually erodes purchasing power year after year goes unhedged. Here's what the data say, why the investment industry hasn't fixed it, and what to do instead.
Robin Powell
May 118 min read
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