Htown Harry
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- May 13, 2007
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Our many fans of index funds will like this bit of news:
Funds Trailing Stock Market by Most Since 1998, JPMorgan Says - Bloomberg
Funds Trailing Stock Market by Most Since 1998, JPMorgan Says - Bloomberg
"Stock mutual funds are having their worst year since 1998 relative to their benchmarks, as higher volatility makes it harder to pick stocks, according to JP Morgan.
Among 2,806 funds tracked by the brokerage, 47 percent underperformed their benchmarks by more than 2.5 percentage points this year, the most since the 55 percent recorded in 1998. Only 13 percent of the funds beat the market by the same margin. The underperformance accelerated last month, with the proportion of trailing funds almost doubling from July, according to JPMorgan data..."
The article goes on to say this trend could be a positive for the market over the next few months:Among 2,806 funds tracked by the brokerage, 47 percent underperformed their benchmarks by more than 2.5 percentage points this year, the most since the 55 percent recorded in 1998. Only 13 percent of the funds beat the market by the same margin. The underperformance accelerated last month, with the proportion of trailing funds almost doubling from July, according to JPMorgan data..."
"Since 1995, there had been nine years when more funds trailed than those that beat from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31. The market rallied in the last four months of a year in all but 2008, with the S&P 500 rising 8.5 percent on average, JPMorgan data showed."
What they don't say is whether all of those trailing fund managers did anything to close the gap as the market rose. I'm guessing they didn't.