Deciphering composite benchmarks

There are an increasing number of funds following benchmarks it is impossible for investors to tra...

There are an increasing number of funds following benchmarks it is impossible for investors to track. The problem is being created by the growing tendency of groups to bring out funds with composite benchmarks. It is confusing enough on paper to looking at portfolios mixing the likes of FTSE, S&P, Apcims and MSCI, it is even more difficult to work out the risk/reward characteristics of such a combination and the actual performance. Organisations such as MSCI calculate and police their own data, not that of other information providers and it is not their job to integrate the two for the ...