Alpha huh. Not if you're investing in mutual funds (or hedge funds for that matter). Don't confuse Mr. Hallam's performance against his colleagues with that of mutual funds vs.index linked ETFs. His case here is about what happens in the real world, no mutual fund could or would replicate the portfolios of John Heinzl, Norm Rothery or Chris Umiatowski which were all designed for the individual investor, not institutions. There's a mountain of academic as well as industry research that confirms the fact that actively managed funds will virtually always under-perform their benchmark indices over any significant period of time and chasing past performance usually has the opposite effect. A fraction of managers will outperform their benchmarks over shorter time frames, say up to 5 years, but they always regress toward the mean eventually. Even if they could perform for longer periods, identifying those funds ahead of time is unlikely and the odds are stacked heavily against you doing so.