http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/03/14/business/ap-us-of-mutual-interest-trading-costs.html
None of this is particularly new but it does serve as a good reminder of another down-side of active trading. It prompted me to do a quick comparison just to reinforce the point in my own head:
Fidelity® Magellan® Fund - a large-cap growth fund, that seeks capital appreciation by investing in common stocks.
Symbol: FMAGX - Turnover = 87%
Fidelity's Spartan® 500 Index Fund - a large-cap index fund, that tracks the index that Fidelity® Magellan® Fund is often compared against.
Symbol: FUSEX - Turnover = 3%
Now compare their relative returns over 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years. Fidelity's Spartan® 500 Index Fund wins every time. So even with a relatively low-cost actively-managed fund, like Fidelity® Magellan® Fund (ER 0.55%, versus 0.10% for FUSEX), the aggregate impact of expenses, trading costs associated with turnover, and the simple fact that monkeys are more often than not better stock pickers than even the best Wall Street fund managers, makes my decision pretty clear: We're going to steer away from actively-managed funds, and climb on board the total market through investing in total market index funds.
None of this is particularly new but it does serve as a good reminder of another down-side of active trading. It prompted me to do a quick comparison just to reinforce the point in my own head:
Fidelity® Magellan® Fund - a large-cap growth fund, that seeks capital appreciation by investing in common stocks.
Symbol: FMAGX - Turnover = 87%
Fidelity's Spartan® 500 Index Fund - a large-cap index fund, that tracks the index that Fidelity® Magellan® Fund is often compared against.
Symbol: FUSEX - Turnover = 3%
Now compare their relative returns over 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years. Fidelity's Spartan® 500 Index Fund wins every time. So even with a relatively low-cost actively-managed fund, like Fidelity® Magellan® Fund (ER 0.55%, versus 0.10% for FUSEX), the aggregate impact of expenses, trading costs associated with turnover, and the simple fact that monkeys are more often than not better stock pickers than even the best Wall Street fund managers, makes my decision pretty clear: We're going to steer away from actively-managed funds, and climb on board the total market through investing in total market index funds.