Quarterly Newsletter – The Right Conditions To Back Active Versus Passive Investing

Welcome to Auscap’s July 2024 Newsletter titled The Right Conditions To Back Active Versus Passive Investing

Passive investing is currently all the rage. This is in large part due to the strong performance of the US stockmarket, which very few active managers have outperformed in recent years, and which passive investors can get exposure to at a low cost through an ETF. At the time of writing the S&P500 total return index is up 18.6% year to date. It has annualised 15.6% over the last 5 years. The largest S&P500 ETF, the State Street SPDR S&P500 ETF Trust, charges a fee of just 0.0945% per annum. What’s more, according to Morningstar less than 20% of active asset managers in the US have outperformed the S&P500 in 2023 and year to date in 2024. What’s going on? Why has passive investment performance been so strong? And does this void an argument for backing active asset management? In this newsletter, we assess the relative performance of passive versus active asset management across the US and Australian stockmarkets in recent years to understand what drives returns from equities over time. We also discuss the investment thesis around one of our portoflio holdings, ResMed. We also detail the performance and portfolio positioning of the Auscap Funds in June 2024.

CPD Points are available for this activity. Please see below.

 

Multiple Choice Test - July Quarterly Newsletter 2024

Learnings Outcomes: In this newsletter, we assess the relative performance of passive versus active asset management across the US and Australian stockmarkets in recent years to understand what drives returns from equities over time. This activity meets the guidelines for qualifying CPD, and has been accredited for continuing professional development by the Financial Advice Association of Australia but does not constitute FAA’s endorsement of the activity. 0.5hr CPD is available for this activity.

Question 1(Required)
The largest weights of the S&P500 Index are currently (as at the date of the newsletter):
Question 2(Required)
The ideal circumstances for a passive investment in a market capitalisation based, or size weighted, index is:
Question 3(Required)
The following statement is true:
Question 4(Required)
It appears that steel, and hence iron ore, consumption in China peaked in 2020 which is significant because:
Question 5(Required)
Over the next few years, it is expected that:
Question 6(Required)
The long term return from investing in equities should:
Name(Required)
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