Does Indexing Still Work?

摘要

The results are in. index mutual funds behave no better, but no worse, than any other mutual fund when the market falls. Money managers like to say that index investing fails when stocks decline. Supposedly you go down the chute with the rest of the clowns while the smarty-pants managers get their customers out in time. Actually, I hadn't noticed so many geniuses at work. Before I go further, let me define the protagonists here. "Managed funds" are run by stock pickers who make bets on which stocks will do the best. But "index funds" run on autopilot, tracking the rise and fall of a particular market index. The most popular funds follow Standard & Poor's 500-stock index of leading companies. Total Market funds follow the Wilshire 5000, a proxy for the entire market. Small-stock funds might follow the Russell 2000 or the MSCI Small Cap Index.