Financial Analysts Journal July/August 2012 Volume 68 Issue 4
Murder on the Orient Express: The Mystery of Underperformance
Abstract
Evidence increasingly shows that a “crime” of extensive underperformance has been committed in mutual funds, pension funds, and endowments. In a pattern reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s famous novel Murder on the Orient Express, an investigation leads to a surprising, if inevitable, conclusion: The usual suspects—investment managers, fund executives, investment consultants, and investment committees—are all guilty.
About the Author(s)
Charles D. Ellis, CFA, is a director of Greenwich Associates, the international business consulting firm he founded in 1972. He is a successor trustee of Yale University, where he chairs the investment committee. Ellis also serves as an overseer of New York University's Stern School of Business, a trustee of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and a director of Vanguard. A recipient of AIMR's Graham & Dodd Award and the C. Stewart Sheppard Award, Ellis was an AIMR governor, serving as chair of the AIMR Board in 1994. He also served as an ICFA Trustee, chaired the ICFA Board, and taught for over 20 years at AIMR's Investment Management Workshop.