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Tag Archives: Active vs. Passive

Mar 23, 2026

What Do the SPIVA Australia Results Imply for Active Portfolio Construction?

Our latest SPIVA® Australia Scorecard underscored the challenges that Australian active funds faced in converting a favorable stock-picking environment into meaningful results in 2025. Among the 831 active equity funds domiciled in Australia that we examined—spanning global equity, domestic equity and REITs—over two-thirds (570 funds) underperformed their category benchmarks. In contrast, active Australian bond funds…

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Mar 17, 2026

The Takaichi Trade: How Dispersion Shaped Japanese Active Funds’ Fortunes

Amid a strong year for global equities in 2025, the latest SPIVA® Japan Scorecard showed that most active funds in Japan struggled to outperform their assigned benchmarks. An interesting finding in the report was the striking difference in relative performance between actively managed Japanese Large-Cap funds and Japanese Mid-/Small-Cap funds. Just 49% of Japanese Large-Cap…

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Mar 10, 2026

Why Do U.S. Equities and the S&P 500 Matter in South Korea?

S&P DJI’s Sue Lee examines the importance of the S&P 500 in the global equity opportunity set, key diversification and sector composition differences between notable U.S. equity and Korean benchmarks and the challenges faced by active managers in the U.S. and South Korea to outperform this iconic index. 

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Jan 13, 2026

2026 Is the Year of the Stock Picker?

Recent market commentary has declared that 2025 was a brutal year for stock picking, with USD 1 trillion pulled out of active equity mutual funds during the year, according to the Investment Company Institute. The year was characterized by sharp double-digit swings for the S&P 500®, and in such environments filled with bouts of volatility,…

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Nov 19, 2025

Advisor Profile: Getting the Most out of Index Provider Content

As financial advisors increasingly use index-based strategies to help scale their practices, many are turning to index providers not only for benchmarks—but also for insights. A recent whitepaper1 from Cerulli Associates analyzes why and how a segment of advisors, known as “index provider content users,” are actively using these insights to inform their decision-making and…

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Nov 14, 2025

SPIVA South Africa: Key Insights and Trends

How can the latest SPIVA Scorecard help inform investors in South Africa? S&P DJI’s Tim Edwards dives into the latest SPIVA results and the trends driving South Africa’s evolving active vs. passive landscape with Asset TV’s Mosidi Modise. 

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Nov 13, 2025

Animal Spirits or Anxiety?

Big Tech and the strength of the Magnificent 7 stocks have powered the S&P 500® to 36 all-time closing highs through the end of October. Amid the euphoria, nervousness about the AI boom1 has sent jitters through the market, most recently with SoftBank’s sale of its stake in Nvidia. The extreme level of mega-cap dominance…

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Nov 12, 2025

Fixed Income Funds and Their Fortunes

Global fixed income markets have been buffeted by tariff-related tensions and inflation concerns coupled with monetary policy uncertainty, with many central banks cutting rates, Japan in tightening mode and the U.S. Fed ending its quantitative tightening program. Focusing on the U.S. and Europe, sovereign yield curves in both regions have steepened since late 2024, with…

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Nov 12, 2025

SPIVA Mid-Year 2025 Results Around the World

For more than 20 years, S&P DJI’s SPIVA® (S&P Indices Versus Active) Scorecards have been evaluating active funds’ performance against their appropriate benchmarks on a biannual basis. The results of our regional SPIVA Scorecards continue to show that active outperformance is rare, especially over the long term.1 Spanning across 11 regions, 54% of all equity…

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Nov 12, 2025

Advisor Profile: How Direct Indexing SMA Users Evaluate Solutions and Indices

Direct indexing separately managed accounts (SMAs) are gaining traction, especially among financial advisors serving affluent and high-net-worth clients. In their recent whitepaper, Cerulli Associates projects a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% for direct indexing SMA assets—the highest among all investment vehicles considered.1 In this blog, we unpack what is driving the growth…

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