Active Share and the Three Pillars of Active Management: Skill, Conviction and Opportunity

30 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2016 Last revised: 27 Aug 2017

Date Written: May 2017

Abstract

We introduce a new formula for Active Share that emphasizes that a fund’s Active Share is only reduced through overlapping holdings with its benchmark. Next, we relate Active Share to the fund manager’s individual stock picking skill, conviction and opportunity. We show why and how to adjust the expense ratio for the level of Active Share and the cost of investing in the benchmark. We conclude that Active Share matters for actively managed funds: investors should not pay (too) much for low Active Share funds which generally underperform, there is no evidence that high Active Share funds as a group have underperformed, while patient managers with high Active Share have been quite successful.

Online appendix can be found at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2891047

Keywords: Active Share, mutual funds, costs, style, patience, fund holding duration

Suggested Citation

Cremers, K. J. Martijn, Active Share and the Three Pillars of Active Management: Skill, Conviction and Opportunity (May 2017). Financial Analysts Journal, 2017, vol. 73, no. 2 (Second Quarter): 61-79, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2860356 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2860356

K. J. Martijn Cremers (Contact Author)

University of Notre Dame ( email )

P.O. Box 399
Notre Dame, IN 46556-0399
United States

ECGI ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

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