What a load of B.S.<p>First off the total amount that Hedge fund managers make as compared to the total return to the investors in an index ETF is comparing apples to oranges. You really should compare the % returns if you are going to make this comparison at all.<p>As mentioned in the original NY Times article one hedge fund manager's "flagship fund gained more than 130 percent last year". That sure beats a 28% return of the market index.<p>Secondly, hedge funds such as SAC Capital, etc. themselves are constantly investing in indexes. They buy and sell index ETFs and their derivatives all the time. I'm sure if you asked them, "hey should we shut down the indexes?" the answer would be, "No."<p>Here's the NY Times article: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/01hedge.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/01hedge.html</a>
<i>That’s a strong defense of individual investors’ decisions to invest in index funds. But that excess performance is only possible if active managers are trading stocks. At some point, someone has to decide that one company is a buy and another company is a sell—if we all invested solely in index funds, share prices would move in lockstep (disregarding liquidity).</i><p>Its a self-correcting scenario. If that were truly the case, then people would start to trade actively, since trading actively would be an easy way to "beat the market".
The whole idea behind indexing is that it is extremely difficult to beat the market, so why not just buy the market.<p>One does not need to do "work" to invest in companies. You place a bet, and you make your return. If you want to bust your ass deciding what bets to make, that's your choice, but the markets would work quite well on their own.
It's both true and obvious that buying index funds externalizes the cost of researching equities.<p>However, active investors engage in self-delusion that they can somehow beat the market. Unless they have highly rare insider information, this isn't true, and the top 25% of fund managers are simply that because the bottom 75% is other fund managers.<p>So it's your trilemma--delude yourself, externalize the cost of research, or watch inflation erode the value of your savings. I'm comfortable with my choice.
You're just annoyed that you made a bad decision with your money, and feel that someone else should shoulder the blame. Yet somehow it isn't the fault of the active investors who take all that expense cash in return for consistently unperforming; no sir, blame the indexers! Is this what your "Financial Advisor" told you while he was skimming 1-5% off the top?<p>In other news, Buggy Whip Owner Considers Cars Harmful (Possibly Evil).