Burton Malkiel: I believe in indexing even more strongly now than when I wrote 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street'

Best approach even in inefficient markets

Investing pioneer and economist Burton Malkiel tells Tom Eckett he believes in indexing 'more strongly than ever' due to the performance evidence that has come to light over the past 40 years.

When veteran economist Burton Malkiel wrote A Random Walk Down Wall Street, published by W.W. Norton and Company in 1973, in which he said "a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts", indexing did not exist. But much has changed since then, with assets under management (AUM) in global ETFs breaking through the $5trn threshold in January. Speaking to Investment Week, Malkiel says: "The percentage of active managers outperforming has been falling since I wrote A Random Wal...