Can active ever beat passive again?

George Saffaye – The Boston Company Asset Management, a BNY Mellon company

During the five years of quantitative easing the Federal Reserve (Fed) achieved its goal of creating a wealth effect as interest rates plummeted to multi-decade lows while equity and bond markets appreciated considerably. However, this caused equities to move increasingly in tandem, making effective stock-picking more challenging. Now, with the Fed signalling potential interest-rate hikes in late 2015/early 2016 the environment is ripe for active managers to show their worth once more. In fact, 65% of active US large-cap funds outperformed their benchmarks during the first quarter of 201...