Active Fund management: Not a good year

In a duel between passive funds, which invest according to fixed rules, and active funds, the Management decides what assets are bought, comparisons are always particularly popular. The Scope rating Agency presented its annual balance sheet 2018 for equity and bond funds and examine how high the proportion of funds that were able to beat their benchmark index.

it’s a matter of how large the proportion of actively managed funds that outperformed over the period under consideration the development of a comparison index, wherein the Scope in this case is a comparative index and not necessarily the underlying, the management of the Fund.

Thus, in 2018, was a not-so-good year for the managers of active funds, such as the year 2017. At that time could succeed in a number of asset classes, more than half of the funds, so this was 2018 in any case. “The year 2017 was an exceptionally good year for active Fund managers,” says Martin Fechtner, senior Analyst at Scope Analysis. To some extent, in 2018, represents, therefore, a normalization.

From the 2000 observed equity funds cut almost a quarter better than the benchmark index. The worst hit in Germany berthing equity Fund: after 2017, almost nine out of ten funds delivered a higher yield, it was 2018, only one out of four. Under the Japan Fund, it was every seventh, and in 2017 a third of the Fund achieved a respectable result. Outside of Japan, the Asia Fund managers were better: at Least 37 percent of the 59 active funds beat the Index.

Was not the result of the equity Fund is already phenomenal, so it was from the pension Fund. Only one in every six pension Fund delivered a result that exceeded the Index. In 2017, it had been the half of it. A small consolation may be that funds, sections on high-yield European corporate bonds as the only asset class better than 2017. Only 29 percent of the funds were not sufficient, but it also shows that the result was already in 2017 too well.

Not so good in 2017, had cut off funds, invested in bonds of various European currencies. However, 2018 was still less well off: Instead of 30 percent, there were only 7 percent of the funds outperformed the benchmark index.