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Feb 19, 2021

What’s Better: Active or Passive Management?

Should you hire an active manager to oversee your assets? Or should you handle the investing yourself with ETFs and/or a ‘set-and-forget’ passive strategy?

The answer to this question is not definitive, and it really depends on what type of investor you are. It may also, interestingly, depend on when you’re trying to decide—more on that later.   

In this post, I’ll make the case for both approaches to investment management.

When You Should Favor Active Management

If you’re the type of investor who:

  • Wants alpha/outperformance;
  • Wants tactical management during downturns;
  • Tends to get emotional during volatile periods;
  • Wants a professional advisor you can talk to and work with…

Then active management is probably the right choice for you. But seeking out an active manager doesn’t mean you’ll always get those things—not all active managers are created equal.

A well-known academic study of a 20-year period from 1990 through 2009 looked at returns of active managers relative to their respective benchmarks, and found that net of fees the active managers underperformed by about 40 basis points per year. Interestingly, the study concluded that in periods when equity-market returns were 10% or higher, only about 30% of active managers outperformed their benchmarks.

So at this point, you may be thinking, why hire an active manager at all? Two reasons. First is that when the researchers looked closer, they found that truly active managers actually performed quite well. The most active 20% of managers, which the study called “diversified stock pickers,” outperformed their benchmarks by 126 basis points per year. The key takeaway here for investors is that active managers who actually trade regularly and have proven track records may be the ones to seek out.

 

 

The second reason is that active managers tend to thrive in tighter markets, when returns are subdued and there’s not much alpha out there to be had. In periods when market returns were under 10%, over 50% of active managers outperformed.

That’s why I mentioned earlier that it might matter when you’re asking about whether active is better than passive. In an environment when market returns looking forward are expected to be low – perhaps such as now given we’re nine years into the bull market and valuations are stretched – then active managers could deliver.

When You Should Favor Passive Management

If you’re the type of investor who:

  • Is truly focused on the long-term;
  • Has the patience to shrug off volatile swings and stay cool in difficult market environments;
  • Is fee sensitive;
  • Can keep your emotions in check;
  • Is ok performing in-line or slightly lower than the market…

Then passive investment is probably the right choice for you. With active management, there’s always a chance that the manager you hire will let you down, underperform the market, and mistime/mismanage a market downturn (or upturn). With passive management, your portfolio tracks the ups and downs of the market, and you participate in just about every price swing.

At its core, passive investment means purchasing an ETF that tracks an index, such as the S&P 500. For an investor who is truly passive, there is only one action item to take: purchase an ETF that tracks the index and never sell it. Over very long stretches of time (20+ years), the S&P 500 has proven to deliver attractive returns, the question is whether the passive investor can manage not to abandon the strategy in the heat of a bear market. That’s where “patience” and keeping emotions in check is critical.

Are You an Active or Passive Investor?

In reality, most investors are active investors. We have too much desire to outperform and are driven all too often by new investment ideas and attractive trades. It’s human nature. Perhaps the key is to be an active investor who also removes emotion completely from the equation, so you avoid unnecessary mistakes. You can do that by hiring an investment manager or using Artificial Intelligence (Robo-Advisors) to help you manage your portfolio over time. You can find both on tickeron.com.   

Related Ticker: SPY

SPY sees its 50-day moving average cross bullishly above its 200-day moving average

The 50-day moving average for SPY moved above the 200-day moving average on June 27, 2025. This could be a long-term bullish signal for the stock as the stock shifts to an upward trend.

Price Prediction Chart

Technical Analysis (Indicators)

Bullish Trend Analysis

The Momentum Indicator moved above the 0 level on June 03, 2025. You may want to consider a long position or call options on SPY as a result. In of 68 past instances where the momentum indicator moved above 0, the stock continued to climb. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for SPY just turned positive on June 26, 2025. Looking at past instances where SPY's MACD turned positive, the stock continued to rise in of 53 cases over the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

Following a 3-day Advance, the price is estimated to grow further. Considering data from situations where SPY advanced for three days, in of 366 cases, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .

The Aroon Indicator entered an Uptrend today. In of 436 cases where SPY Aroon's Indicator entered an Uptrend, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued Uptrend are .

Bearish Trend Analysis

The RSI Indicator has been in the overbought zone for 2 days. Expect a price pull-back in the near future.

The Stochastic Oscillator demonstrated that the ticker has stayed in the overbought zone for 3 days. The longer the ticker stays in the overbought zone, the sooner a price pull-back is expected.

Following a 3-day decline, the stock is projected to fall further. Considering past instances where SPY declined for three days, the price rose further in of 62 cases within the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are .

SPY broke above its upper Bollinger Band on June 26, 2025. This could be a sign that the stock is set to drop as the stock moves back below the upper band and toward the middle band. You may want to consider selling the stock or exploring put options.

Notable companies

The most notable companies in this group are NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Eli Lilly & Co (NYSE:LLY).

Industry description

The investment seeks to provide investment results that, before expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P 500® Index. The trust seeks to achieve its investment objective by holding a portfolio of the common stocks that are included in the index, with the weight of each stock in the portfolio substantially corresponding to the weight of such stock in the index.

Market Cap

The average market capitalization across the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF ETF is 113.59B. The market cap for tickers in the group ranges from 7.11B to 3.85T. NVDA holds the highest valuation in this group at 3.85T. The lowest valued company is TKO at 7.11B.

High and low price notable news

The average weekly price growth across all stocks in the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF ETF was 19%. For the same ETF, the average monthly price growth was 32%, and the average quarterly price growth was 74%. SMCI experienced the highest price growth at 20%, while FTV experienced the biggest fall at -26%.

Volume

The average weekly volume growth across all stocks in the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF ETF was 2%. For the same stocks of the ETF, the average monthly volume growth was -30% and the average quarterly volume growth was 88%

Fundamental Analysis Ratings

The average fundamental analysis ratings, where 1 is best and 100 is worst, are as follows

Valuation Rating: 61
P/E Growth Rating: 50
Price Growth Rating: 44
SMR Rating: 50
Profit Risk Rating: 48
Seasonality Score: 27 (-100 ... +100)
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