This week, I'm going to hand the reins over to Roger Schreiner, one of the early pioneers of active money management, and allow him to fill you in on a challenge he made last year to John Bogle of Vanguard Funds fame. Roger has studied and observed active and passive management strategies for decades and feels, as I do, that active strategies can provide superior risk management. Roger's conviction is so strong that he challenged Mr. Bogle to a contest that would prove which strategy would come out on top over a given period of time, with $100,000 going to the winner's charity of choice. Mr. Bogle didn't accept, so Roger later widened the challenge to any passive money manager. Still, no takers.
While most active managers put their 'money where their mouth is' by investing in their own programs, Roger has gone one step further by issuing a direct challenge to one of the most prominent adherents of buy-and-hold strategies, and risking $100,000 of his own money in the process. I think you'll enjoy reading Roger's challenge as well as his arguments in favor of active management. After his discussion, I'll debunk a few of the more common rebuttals that Roger has received since issuing his challenge. If you are struggling with deciding how to get back into the market, I think you'll find this week's E-Letter to be very interesting.
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