It should come as no surprise that active funds do not outperform their benchmarks over a significant time period, but take a look at the data. This graph shows the percentage of funds in the surviving universe (29% do not survive) that beat their benchmark in consecutive years. In the first year (2004), 33% of the funds were winners, but by year five (2008), only 1.4% of the funds (38 out of 2,619) had consistently outperformed their benchmark. Click here for the slide.

Some of the most complex problems investors face can be solved with simple solutions. The following rules help investors build and adhere to a well-designed investment plan. Click here to read the rules.

Should equity investors be alarmed by the prospect of greater government intervention in the US economy? Weston Wellington of Dimensional Fund Advisors looks at examples of US intervention in the past and examines the record of stock returns around the world over the last thirty-nine years. The evidence suggests that government intervention is just one factor among many affecting stock returns, and that an above-average degree of intervention is not necessarily associated with below-average returns.