The End of Indexing

Book excerpt: Index-tracking is the flavour of the day - it accounts for around one-third of the total US mutual fund market, and is still growing rapidly. Indexing appears to be unstoppable. But, in The End of Indexing, investment veteran Niels Jensen presents a different vision. In a forthright and compelling examination of the investment landscape, Jensen argues that the economic environment we are entering will be unsuited to index-tracking strategies. Jensen identifies six structural mega-trends that are set to disrupt investors around the globe: 1. End of the debt super-cycle 2. Retirement of the baby boomers 3. Declining spending power of the middle classes 4. Rise of the East 5. Death of fossil fuels 6. Mean reversion of wealth-to-GDP In conjunction, these six themes have the potential to create conditions resembling a perfect storm that will result in low economic growth for decades to come. Investment techniques and methodologies - including passive investing strategies - that have worked so well in the bull market of the last 35 years will no longer deliver acceptable results. As a new investment approach is called for, The End of Indexing provides investors with a guide to the challenging environment ahead and a warning about the future decline of index-tracking.