Remember That "It's a Stock Pickers Market" Argument

Active managers apparently have a new excuse why their active management isnt't working...blame it on the market. I also fail to understand why performing poorly under difficult circumstances is a good excuse for a money manager.

from bloomberg

Best Stock Pickers Say Easy Money Has Made Their Job Harder

Managers say they haven’t changed, the market has. The easy money climate of near-zero interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve has artificially inflated prices of lower-quality U.S. stocks, they say, punishing those who focus on businesses with the best fundamentals. At the same time, the relentless climb of prices across equity markets has left them with few chances to sniff out bargains or show what they can do in more-volatile times.

“In straight-up markets you don’t need active managers,” D’Alelio said in a telephone interview. “If the next five years are the same, there won’t be any active managers left.”

Twenty percent of mutual funds that pick U.S. stocks beat their main benchmarks in 2014, and 21 percent topped the indexes in the five years ended Dec. 31, according to data from Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. Over 10 and 15 years, the winners rise to 34 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

Of course hope springs eternal: 

, Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in the firm’s 2015 outlook published in December.

“From our lens, this means a prolonged period of active investing is upon us, thereby overtaking the macro or index biased ways that have engulfed investing the past 15 years,” Belski wrote.

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Regardless of whether the trend is turning, Jeff Tjornehoj, an analyst with Denver-based fund tracker Lipper, doesn’t buy the idea that certain types of markets are tougher on stock pickers.

“It sounds like a team complaining about the rain when everyone has to play under the same weather,” Tjornehoj said in a phone interview.

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Jim Rowley, a senior analyst at Vanguard Group Inc., is also dubious of high stock correlation as an explanation. In each of the last eight years, at least 70 percent of the stocks in the broad Russell 3000 Index either beat or underperformed that benchmark by 10 percentage points or more, according to Rowley, whose firm is known for championing index funds.

“That would suggest there has been ample opportunity to pick winners and losers,” Rowley said in a phone interview.

But despite all the data on active fund manager underperformance don't worry:

“This is setting up as an ideal environment for stock pickers,” said Neuberger’s D’Alelio.