But the skies are brightening. In the year to June 2017 over half of all US equity mutual funds outperformed their benchmarks, according to the latest flagship scorecard from SPDJI released last week. Equity hedge funds are also enjoying a welcome hot streak. On average they have gained 8.6 per cent this year, according to HFR, the research group, making this the strongest run in four years. “While passive strategies clearly have had the upper hand from 2009-2016, historically there has been a clear cyclicality in the leadership between the two,” Andrew Folsom, a senior investment analyst at Wells Fargo wrote in a recent report. “We could be in the early stages of an ‘active versus passive’ regime change.”

https://www.ft.com/content/294de4ec-9eb2-11e7-8cd4-932067fbf946