Is active or passive investing better for the average investor? The active versus passive investing debate has existed for longer than most of us have been alive, starting from Jensen (1968), updated by Malkiel (1995). Yes, the same Malkiel who wrote A Random Walk Down Wall Street. While entire forests have been chopped down for the papers on active versus passive investing, there is still no conclusion to this debate. Why? Because both active and passive funds exist even today. This should not be the case if there is a clear conclusion. And does active or passive investing work better for stocks or for bonds?

Not even the exhaustive research that S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) does has deterred asset managers from finding a way to try to beat the market. Here’s what their latest results show, firstly for active fund performance in different countries: