Much of the focus of this website is institutional (pensions, endowments, portable alpha etc.).  But many readers are also financial advisors who realize that many of the ideas adopted by institutions eventually make their way to the world of retail investments.  If you are such advisor, there is one online publication to which you should really subscribe: Advisor Perspectives.  This weekly e-newsletter often contains some interesting commentary on active and passive management – the retail version of many of the alpha/beta concepts discussed here.  Best of all, it’s free.

This week, it contains an interesting piece by a fee-only portfolio manager that recounts the story of how the founders of Google educated their soon-to-be rich pre-IPO employees on how to stay rich post IPO.  But while the story is presented as an endorsement of efficient markets, it may actually raise as many questions as it answers about the battle between active and passive management.

Says the article:

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