Investors who rolled with passive funds and technology stocks saw superior returns over those who opted for actively managed funds since Oasis threw in the towel in 2009.
That’s according to data from Charles Stanely in what is unlikely to be the last tenuous piece of Oasis-linked investment analysis since the Manchester legends confirmed their first string of dates in 15 years.
Rob Morgan, chief investment analyst at Charles Stanley (LSE:CHAS), pointed out the disparity between active and passive funds by analysing the total returns of the ten best-performing funds registered by the Investment Association since 1 August, 2009.
It was that month that the Gallagher brothers confirmed their unceremonious parting of ways, in both band and familial contexts.
Far out in front is the L&G Global Technology Index Trust, which has converted £1,000 into £14,850 over the past 15 years, making for a walloping 1,385% return.
It has outperformed similar tech-weighted funds that take an active investment approach, such as Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders, which came in second by converting £1,000 into £11,952 (a 1,095% return).
However, there is greater representation of active funds across the remainder of the leaderboard, with AXA Framlington Global Technology (£11,273/1,027%), UBS US Growth (£10,879/988%) and AXA Framlington American Growth (£9,782/878%) rounding out the top five.
What they all have in common though is their emphasis on the Magnificent 7 US tech stocks, namely Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Nvidia Corp, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, ETR:FB2A, SWX:FB) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
These tech titans have seen their valuations grow exponentially in the past 15 years, supercharged more recently by the boom in artificial intelligence technology.
Actively managed Fidelity UK Smaller Companies came in sixth place, “showing there’s also good returns to be found closer to home”, said Morgan.
Passive funds differ from active funds in that their portfolio weightings are tethered to a global index, in L&G Global Technology Index Trust’s case the FTSE World Technology Index.
This has benefitted the fund considerably as it has maintained a substantial weighting to Microsoft (currently 16%) and Nvidia (currently 4%), two of the fastest-growing stocks globally.
Active fund managers tend to keep their individual stock allocations below 10%, “so they have missed out on some of the gains from these behemoths”, noted Morgan.
Either way, noughties-era investors who bought into big tech stocks have made a killing, which will come in handy for the inevitable price gouging when Oasis tickets soon go on sale.