Critiquing a case for active management

Last week, we published an American portfolio manager’s take on active management. Jim O’Shaughnessy, chairman and CEO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management in Stamford, CT, argued via Twitter that “You can do significantly better with active investing, but ONLY if you have the psychological make up to stay the course.”

Read: Do you agree with this case for active management?

Readers and citizens of the interwebs responded.

“Seems like a cop out,” one advisor from Nova Scotia tells us. “Let’s wait 10 years and then determine if they’re doing a good job or not. With all the fund amalgamations, along with creating replacement portfolios, how many funds do you see with 10+ year returns nowadays?

“Times are changing and clients’ portfolios are changing with the times. Their allocations change as they move through their life stages. So then what would he say: ‘Too bad you had to change your allocation after eight years; your performance would have been better’? How would he feel if his bonus was based and paid out after his decade of performance?”

O’Shaughnessy’s tweets also provoked further discussion on Twitter:

@advisorca @jposhaughnessy surely it’s the other way round, as the drawdowns in passive are far greater than w active

— Jon Boorman (@JBoorman) January 5, 2017

@advisorca @jposhaughnessy the behavior gap with active is from periods of underperforming an index, w passive it’s the drawdowns themselves

— Jon Boorman (@JBoorman) January 5, 2017

@advisorca @jposhaughnessy active PM who net of fees matches index is still better than passive b/c less dd means more likely to stick w it.

— Jon Boorman (@JBoorman) January 5, 2017

One user, @finsovet, said that this tweet was interesting in light of O’Shaughnessy’s statements:

Mauboussin takes the “growth of passive is good for active alpha” premise one step further: fewer weak hands makes outperformance /harder/. pic.twitter.com/B2E9Esb2cr

— Lady FOHF (@LadyFOHF) January 5, 2017

What do you think? Comment below or email us.