Hi Plague, you've shared a very selective snapshot in time...

Hi Plague, you've shared a very selective snapshot in time during a period of peak market volatility and uncertainty to illustrate a point, but point taken re larger institutions and their desire to minimise volatility. However, what the table doesn't allude to is the fundamental misread by Magellan of the market recovery following the March covid flash-crash, where they stumbled badly. If Magellan had actually managed to simultaneously minimise losses AND outperform the market in the 6-8 months following the March crash, this probably would have been one of the single biggest finance stories of 2020, but that's not how it panned out. This is a perfect example of where time IN the market is more important than timing the market, and for most retail investors (such as myself) a broad exposure to a market-weighted Index fund or etf will achieve these goals. If downside protection is minimising losses during moments of market panic then missing out on the majority of gains during the recovery, I will choose the market 100% of the time (barring approaching retirement, which I am 20+ years away from).

My view re the lower Magellan Beta (vs. the broader market) is that it still does not adequately compensate investors for the very high risk they are taking of investing in a concentrated group of stocks. As an example look at the massive haircut Magellan took riding Alibaba down from $300-odd to $160, which in part probably explains some of the performance drag during 2020. A proper downside protection strategy here would have been selling Alibaba once the cracks started to show. This is another aspect of Managed funds not really touched on, which is the psychology and personality traits of an individual manager - and how hard it can be to admit you were wrong when you've been right for so long.

Anyway, I don't want to turn it into a Managed fund vs. Index fund debate, there's pros and cons for both pov and having your investment managed by someone else is still a legitimate financial decision and probably suits a lot of people. Btw if I had $300M to invest, I'd be sitting on the beach in Boracay loving life, not posting on HC ;-)