June 2009 Archives
Jun 29, 2009
Essays
Luck versus Skill in Mutual Fund Performance 
This essay has been updated. The latest version is available here
Jun 23, 2009
Videos
Dollar Cost Averaging 
Does it make sense to dollar cost average? It depends. Standard financial analysis says dollar cost averaging is suboptimal. If you focus on only your investment outcome, investing a lump sum immediately lets you construct the best portfolio you can today; slowing the process with dollar cost averaging just keeps you in something other than your best portfolio until you are done. Behavioral finance provides a different perspective. Because of the difference between the way people react to errors of omission and errors of commission, dollar cost averaging may give investors a better expected investment experience.

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Jun 17, 2009
Videos
Identifying Superior Managers 
Although it would be great if we could all hire above average active managers, that only happens in Lake Wobegon. Superior managers may exist, but most investors might as well be picking their managers at random. I describe the challenge of differentiating luck from skill, and explain how intense competition among investors makes the problem even more difficult.

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Jun 9, 2009
Videos
Is This a Good Time for Active Investing? 
KRF: I explain why active investing is always a negative sum game. We often hear that now is a good time (or a bad time) for active investing. That does not make sense. In aggregate, active investors always underperform by their fees and expenses.

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Jun 9, 2009
Videos
More Sellers than Buyers? 
KRF: What does it mean to say there is a flight to quality? For every seller there must be a buyer. After exploring this simple point, I explain how expectations about future cashflows and future returns affect the current price.


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Jun 3, 2009
Essays
Why Active Investing Is a Negative Sum Game 

by Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French

William F. Sharpe has a great article in the January/February 1991 issue of The Financial Analysts Journal (Vol. 47, No.1, pages 7-9). The title is "The Arithmetic of Active Management." It should be required reading for academics and investment professionals alike.

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ABOUT FAMA AND FRENCH
Eugene F. Fama
The Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Kenneth R. French
The Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
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