During the ‘stressed period’ of February 19 to March 31, 2020, more than half of the sample of funds considered active funds (net of running costs) underperformed their respective benchmarks (on average).
For example, during the worst of the crisis – in the last week of March 2020 – active funds underperformed their benchmark by 0.8%, while passive funds underperformed just 0.01%.
During the ‘post-stress’ period from April 1 to June 30, 2020, over 40% of active funds underperformed.
exception to the rule
However, there is an exception. The highest rated UCITS Active Funds consistently outperform their respective benchmarks.
For the passive funds analyzed, benchmark-adjusted performance remained near zero or was markedly negative.
