, Columnist
Wall Street Is Challenging the Low-Cost-Investing Revolution
Financial firms are leveraging the hype around crypto, AI and private markets to lure investors back into pricey funds.
Lots of sizzle.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg
Ordinary investors have won the battle of fees. The challenge will be holding on to that victory as Wall Street mounts a counteroffensive.
Investing today is as easy as opening a free brokerage account and buying a low-cost, commission-free index fund that tracks the broad market, then sitting and marveling as it blossoms. Since I started my first professional job in the mid-1990s, an investment in a cheap S&P 500 Index fund would have grown more than 17-fold, beating virtually every professional investor over that time.