What is the difference between active and passive fund returns?
Active investing seeks to outperform – or “beat” – the benchmark index, while passive investing seeks to track the benchmark index. Active investing is favored by those who seek to mitigate extreme downside risk, while passive investing is often used by investors with a long-term horizon.
Active management requires frequent buying and selling in an effort to outperform a specific benchmark or index. Passive management replicates a specific benchmark or index in order to match its performance. Active management portfolios strive for superior returns but take greater risks and entail larger fees.
Active investments are funds run by investment managers who try to outperform an index over time, such as the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000. Passive investments are funds intended to match, not beat, the performance of an index.
Passive funds have attracted more inflows than active funds for the past nine years, according to Morningstar fund flow data. Elsewhere, passive long-term strategies continue to lag. Outside of the United States, passive strategies only make up 26% of assets under management.
The objective of an active strategy is to achieve 'alpha' – in other words, to beat the market benchmark. “A passive strategy is more of a buy-and-hold strategy. You have to decide yourself when and how to reposition your exposure, whereas with active investing, it is done for you by the fund manager.”
What Is Active Return? Active return is the percentage gain or loss of an investment relative to the investment's benchmark. A benchmark might be market comprehensive, such as the Standard and Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500), or sector-specific, such as the Dow Jones U.S. Financials Index.
As the ETF market has evolved, different types of ETFs have been developed. They can be passively managed or actively managed. Passively managed ETFs attempt to closely track a benchmark (such as a broad stock market index, like the S&P 500), whereas actively managed ETFs intend to outperform a benchmark.
Passive management generally works best for easily traded, well-known holdings like stocks in large U.S. corporations, says Smetters, because so much is known about those firms that active managers are unlikely to gain any special insight. “You should almost never pay for active management for those things.”
What are passive funds? Passive funds track the performance of a particular market or index, such as the FTSE 100. As well as unit trusts or open-ended investment companies (OEICs), passive funds can also be stock market listed exchange traded funds (ETFs).
In general, active fund managers achieved higher success in small and mid-cap equity strategies than those investing in large caps. Active managers found success in categories where passives had a strong structural bias to a particular sector or a concentrated few names, according to Morningstar.
What is an active fund?
Active funds
The job of an active fund manager is to pick and choose investments, with the aim of delivering a performance that beats the fund's stated benchmark or index. Together with a team of analysts and researchers, the manager will 'actively' buy, hold and sell stocks to try to achieve this goal.
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.
Underperformance by active managers is one reason – only 36% of active managers beat the average passive alternative in 2023 across seven key equity sectors, according to Investment Association data. That said, it is unreasonable to expect fund managers to outperform every single year.
In general, actively managed funds have failed to survive and beat their benchmarks, especially over longer time horizons. Just one out of every four active funds topped the average of passive rivals over the 10-year period ended June 2023. But success rates vary across categories.
Summary. An active return is the portion of return that is attributable to the investment decisions of the portfolio manager. It is obtained by finding the variance between the benchmark and the actual return.
For example, when the market is volatile or the economy is weakening, active managers may outperform more often than when it is not. Conversely, when specific securities within the market are moving in unison or equity valuations are more uniform, passive strategies may be the better way to go.
Passively managed funds don't have a fund manager to update the portfolio or tell you when market conditions change. Passive investment funds are relatively tax-efficient due to their 'buy and hold' strategy, which means you'll incur less capital gains tax than those who actively invest.
Active bond funds outperformed their passive peers in 2023, Morningstar says. These are top performers.
Active funds have outperformed in several fixed income categories. Passive index investment strategies are designed to mirror the composition and performance of a benchmark index. In contrast, active strategies can differ from the index in the pursuit of better returns.
Bottom line. Passive investing can be a huge winner for investors: Not only does it offer lower costs, but it also performs better than most active investors, especially over time. You may already be making passive investments through an employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k).
What is a drawback of actively managed funds?
Disadvantages of Active Management
Actively managed funds generally have higher fees and are less tax-efficient than passively managed funds. The investor is paying for the sustained efforts of investment advisers who specialize in active investment, and for the potential for higher returns than the markets as a whole.
Passive investors hold assets long term, which means paying less in taxes. Lower Risk: Passive investing can lower risk, because you're investing in a broad mix of asset classes and industries, as opposed to relying on the performance of individual stock.
“BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are often lumped together for the purpose of considering large passive managers within the U.S.,” Stewart told Institutional Investor.
- Steady Earning. Investing in Passive Funds means you're in it for a long race. ...
- Fewer Efforts. As one of the most known benefits of passive investing, low maintenance is something that active investing surely lacks. ...
- Affordable. ...
- Lower Risk. ...
- Saving on Capital Gain Tax.
Passive funds come in two forms: index funds and exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. The core difference is that unlike index funds, ETFs can be traded throughout the day on the stock market, much like individual shares. For long-term investors, the difference is not important.
