Israel has over 100 active funds operating throughout the country with $10 billion under management.

This difference alone might have been expected to result in an advantage of 0.2 percentage point for the active funds.

This is not to say that you should dismiss active fund managers.

Picking the right active fund at the moment is a nightmare."

He combines some of the popular indexing approach with active fund management.

But it failed to matter, presumably because the active funds hold more volatile stocks.

Market volatility should be an opportunity for active fund managers to prove their worth.

The active fund managers' argument would be sound if it were not for one point: many of them consistently fail to add value.

Most any active fund manager would give his or her eyeteeth for a long-term record like ours.

Not much for active fund managers to crow about, but outperformance nevertheless.

Managers of active funds have more discretion, he said, and some foreign stocks are relatively illiquid.

It claims to be the largest UK-owned active fund manager.

Most active fund managers underperform, and by a far greater margin, because of higher charges."

The Isa season is about active fund management - adverts for index-tracking funds are few and far between.

So score one for active fund management.

"This is a good environment for an active fund manager," Mr. Baldwin said.

Active fund management strategies that involve frequent trading generate higher transaction costs which diminish the fund's return.

For any one year, that is only a small difference, which is why in some years, like 1999, the majority of active funds beat the indexes.

Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest manager of mutual funds, defends the active fund by pointing to those that do beat the market.

Market gains seem to be leveling off, which makes the expenses of active funds a larger percentage of total returns.

He became an active fund raiser and recruiter on behalf of the Cuban pro-independence movement.

'Forget active funds, buy an index fund instead'

The selloff also undermined the widely held notion that emerging markets are fertile ground for active fund managers.

It is winding down its low-fee earning businesses to focus on more lucrative active fund management and higher-margin products.

So far, active fund investors do not seem to be sitting quietly, at least according to data from the Charles Schwab Corporation.