The Balance: Reasons Why Sophisticated Investors Don't Buy Index Funds

Published September, 2018

Excerpts below; read the article here

Methodology of the Major Index Funds

Buying an index fund is in a way outsourcing your thinking to someone else. In the case of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it is the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, which determines the components in the world’s most famous stock market index. In the case of the S&P 500, it’s other investors who set the prices of common stocks by buying or selling them directly, determining the market capitalization of each firm. Both still involve human judgment, just not yours.

What makes this somewhat untenable to sophisticated investors is that index funds ranked by market capitalization (for example, the S&P 500) are structured in a way that means you buy more shares of a certain stock as the price gets more expensive, and sell shares as it gets less expensive—buying high and selling low.

Unfortunately, it’s the only feasible mechanism because the assets invested in index funds are so massive it makes fundamental or equal weightings impossible to achieve. Vanguard or another large index fund could not have an S&P 500 equally weighted index fund with their current asset bases. A sophisticated investor could construct one directly, though.

Reasons to Use an Index Fund

A sophisticated investor might want to not worry about her family after he/she has died. Warren Buffett himself has said that upon his passing, his wife will be left with the bulk of her fortune invested 90 percent in S&P 500 index funds and 10 percent cash despite the fact that he has never personally owned a mutual fund.

Index Fund and Taxes