When the Evidence Is Solid and the Returns Aren’t
The numbers said other strategies should have beaten growth stocks after the financial crisis. They didn’t (so far).
This 10-year anniversary commemorates a conundrum.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. stock market’s turnaround from the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. A lot has changed since March 2009. Investors are more fee conscious, more willing to venture into foreign markets and open to a broader variety of investing styles such as value, momentum and quality.
That evolution was no accident. It was the work of a movement known as evidence-based investing, of which I’m an adherent. The basic premise is that investors should rigorously test the validity of an investment idea — or rely on credible research that has done so — before putting their money behind it.