Bill Miller, manager of the $19 billion Legg Mason Value Trust fund, has posted returns better than the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index 15 years in a row — a legendary run known in the industry simply at “The Streak.” No one else in the $8 trillion mutual-fund business is even close. Manu Daftary, manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth Fund, is second, with eight years of outperformance. But this year, Mr. Miller’s fund is down 3.6%, putting it 12% behind the S&P on a total-return basis, according to Morningstar (Mr. Daftary’s run is also in jeopardy; his fund is 6.4% behind the S&P). While Mr. Miller has made strong end-year runs in the past (last year’s big Google holding helped the fund edge past the benchmark at the last minute), it’s looking increasingly unlikely that he’ll do so this year.
MarketBeat: Where’s the Soda Pop? The Wall Street Journal 12 Oct 2006.
While I may have concerns about index investing, it remains extremely hard to consistently outperform an index.
Recent Comments