top of page
BLOG
News, views and analysis
The Evidence-Based Investor a proud partner with
FEATURED POST
How much passive investing is too much?
Warnings that index funds have broken the stock market all imply a threshold: a share of the market at which price discovery fails. Nobody making the argument names it. Owen Lamont, writing in the Financial Analysts Journal, argues that no such number exists short of complete passive ownership, and that what actually determines whether prices stay informative is who is left doing the trading. His case, the strongest peer-reviewed research against it, and what the performance
Robin Powell
Search
Why expected returns matter more than index concentration
The fund industry says index concentration is the big risk. But the evidence points elsewhere. Compressed expected returns are what really threaten your long-term wealth — and the right response is simpler and cheaper than the industry would have you believe.
Robin Powell
Feb 279 min read
S&P 500 concentration: the scare story that's costing investors money
The fund industry warns that S&P 500 concentration makes your index fund dangerous. A major new study covering nearly a century of data tells a very different story — and suggests the real risk is listening to people who profit from your fear.
Robin Powell
Feb 189 min read
S&P 500 concentration risk: is your portfolio really diversified?
S&P 500 concentration risk is at historic highs. If you own a global tracker, your portfolio may be far less diversified than you think. Here's what you can do about it.
Robin Powell
Dec 19, 20252 min read
Is the S&P 500 too concentrated?
If I had £1 for every time I read that index funds are too heavily concentrated in big US tech stocks I would be a very rich man. It is undeniably true. The FT recently reported that the top ten companies accounted for 37.3% of the S&P 500, which, by historical standards, is a very high proportion. Even more remarkably, just 26 stocks made up half the entire value of the index — the lowest number since at least 1980. Several market commentators have warned that rising levels
Robin Powell
Jan 17, 20255 min read
Why S&P and MSCI 'same market' index funds can return very different numbers
Two index families claiming to track 'the US market' can still diverge by several percentage points a year. Sherifa Issifu unpacks how differences in index construction, quality screens and sector weights explain why S&P and MSCI benchmarks quietly part ways.
Robin Powell
Mar 22, 20233 min read
SUBSCRIBE
Simply provide your email address to receive our regular update.
bottom of page