What percentage of active funds beat the market?
Although it is very difficult, the market can be beaten. Every year, some managers boast better numbers than the market indices. A small fraction even manages to do so over a longer period. Over the horizon of the last 20 years, less than 10% of U.S. actively managed funds have beaten the market.
Less than 10% of active large-cap fund managers have outperformed the S&P 500 over the last 15 years. The biggest drag on investment returns is unavoidable, but you can minimize it if you're smart. Here's what to look for when choosing a simple investment that can beat the Wall Street pros.
Research: 89% of fund managers fail to beat the market
According to this report, 88.99% of large-cap US funds have underperformed the S&P500 index over ten years. As a whole, 78–97% of actively managed stock funds failed to beat the indexes they were benchmarked against over ten years.
Unfortunately not, by definition index funds can't beat the market. The reason being is because they invest exactly like the market, but are a product, created by a company, that has fees associated with it. So those fees will be the reason an index product can't “beat the market”.
Over the full year, a majority of actively managed funds underperformed their assigned benchmarks in most of our reported fund categories. In our largest and most closely watched comparison, 60% of all active large-cap U.S. equity funds underperformed the S&P 500.
Of the nearly 3,000 active funds included in our analysis, 47% survived and outperformed their average passive peer in 2023.
It found that over the course of one year, 51.08% of actively-managed mutual funds underperformed the S&P 500, and 48.92% of actively-managed funds outperformed the S&P 500.
Despite the large amount of money invested in actively managed funds, these funds on average underperform their passive counterparts after fees. The existing literature proposes a potential explanation to the puzzle - active funds perform better in down markets when it matters the most to investors.
The average investor may not have a very good chance of beating the market. Regular investors may be able to achieve better risk-adjusted returns by focusing on losing less. Consider using low-cost platforms, creating a portfolio with a purpose, and beware of headline risk.
Commonly called the S&P 500, it's one of the most popular benchmarks of the overall U.S. stock market performance. Everybody tries to beat it, but few succeed.
How many fund managers beat the S&P 500?
Unsurprisingly, the majority do not beat those benchmarks, and even the ones who do don't keep their lead for long. Over its 23-year history, the SPIVA report shows that, on average, 64% of active large-cap fund managers fare worse than their benchmark (the S&P 500) in any given year.
Only one out of every four active funds topped the average of their passive rivals over the 10-year period ended December 2022. But success rates vary across categories. Long-term success rates were generally higher among bond, real estate, and foreign-stock funds, where active management may hold the upper hand.
Any stock fund manager can top the benchmark S&P 500 in any given year. But the best funds have a proven investment strategy and performance record.
Under the final amendments, when a fund employs a derivatives strategy, the fund will generally be required to use the notional value to determine if 80% of its funds are invested in accordance with the focus its name suggests.
Another driver of the underperformance of active funds, according to McDermott, is fees: “All funds have years where they underperform, however, the longer-term evidence is undeniable that active managers have continued to struggle. The main reason for this underperformance is because active funds charge higher fees.”
International developed stock fund managers were able to beat their respective indexes in four of the past 23 years, or 17.4% of the time. Meanwhile, emerging markets active fund managers fared even worse. They only managed to outperform in two years, or 8.7% of the time, during these 20-plus years.
It's true that over the short term, some mutual funds will outperform the market by significant margins - but over the long term, active investment tends to underperform passive indexing, especially after taking account of fees and taxes.
Since you hold investments for different periods of time, the best way to compare their performance is by looking at their annualized percent return. In this example, your annualized return is 9.42 percent. Tip: Use FINRA's Fund Analyzer to find annual and total return for mutual funds and ETFs.
Active Investing Disadvantages
All those fees over decades of investing can kill returns. Active risk: Active managers are free to buy any investment they believe meets their criteria. Management risk: Fund managers are human, so they can make costly investing mistakes.
Although it is very difficult, the market can be beaten. Every year, some managers boast better numbers than the market indices. A small fraction even manages to do so over a longer period. Over the horizon of the last 20 years, less than 10% of U.S. actively managed funds have beaten the market.
Which mutual funds beat the market?
| Ticker | Name | 5-year return (%) |
|---|---|---|
| PBFDX | Payson Total Return | 16.73% |
| FGRTX | Fidelity Mega Cap Stock | 16.52% |
| STSEX | BlackRock Exchange BlackRock | 16.27% |
| USBOX | Pear Tree Quality Ordinary | 16.13% |
| Large Cap funds | 1-year-return (%) | 3-year return (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Edelweiss Large Cap Fund | 31.68 | 17.67 |
| HDFC Top 100 Fund | 35.08 | 21.64 |
| ICICI Prudential Bluechip Fund | 37.38 | 21.32 |
| Invesco India Largecap Fund | 37.59 | 19.23 |
Active managers held a 57% success rate, up from 38% in 2022. Mortality and distribution of 10-year annualized excess returns for surviving active intermediate-core bonds. Although just half of funds survived the full period, 63% of the ones that did succeeded.
(NASDAQ:DXCM) and Medpace Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEDP) are the only two healthcare sector companies that have made it onto our list of 13 stocks that outperform the S&P 500 every year for the last 5 years. The shares of DexCom, Inc.
The average fund underperformed its benchmark by 1.75% per year before taxes and by 2.58% on an after-tax basis. Just 22% of funds managed to beat their benchmarks on a pretax basis. The average outperformance was 1.4%; the average underperformance was 2.6%. But on an after-tax basis, only 14% of funds outperformed.
