Thursday, January 24, 2013
It's Market Efficiency By A Length
Five years ago, famed investor Warren Buffett placed a bet with the
founders of the Protégé Partners hedge fund that the S&P 500 would
outperform a hedge fund index chosen by Protégé partners over a 10-year
period. At its heart, the bet was about market efficiency, that a group
of most well compensated investment gurus could not outperform the broad
stock market. At the five-year mark,
the S&P 500 is up 8.69 percent, while the five hedge funds picked
by Protégé are up only .13 percent. This marks the first time in the
past five years that the S&P 500 is ahead of the hedge funds. The
winner gets to choose the charity that will receive the $1 million plus
prize. What does this bet mean for you? A former investment banker gives her view.