Investors would be wise to look at the long-term performance of
highly rated mutual funds, and the sustainability of outperformance
versus their peers and benchmarks. Standard & Poor ’s provides statistical
analysis of mutual fund performance for free to both retail and
professional investors, via their web site at www.usspindices.com .
S&P provides analysis of mutual fund performance in their “S&P
Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA®) Scorecard,” as well as in their
“Persistence Scorecard” report.
The most recent Year-End SPIVA Scorecard foreshadows a rather
alarming trend of underperformance by active managers in recent
years. As shown in Table 3.1 , the performance of actively managed
funds in 2012 lagged behind the passive benchmark indices for 63.25
percent of large-cap funds, 80.45 percent of mid-cap funds, and 66.5
percent of small-cap funds. These managers fared even worse over
three- and five-year time horizons.