The Wall Street Journal has a piece out this morning on Hedge Fund performance and the success they?ve enjoyed in the first half of 2015. Stock-focused hedge funds in particular have done rather well, with average returns of 5% versus just 3.23% for the S&P 500.
With the median S&P 500 stock up just 2.2%, there has been a lot of room for stock pickers and active management to add some value. The distribution of returns have been fairly wide, with 146 stocks- roughly one out of every three- up double digits so far.

It?s good to see active management do well after a few rough years. If you?re an index advocate, you should be thrilled with what?s been happened in the first half of the year. After a monster three year stretch for U.S. stocks, consolidating these gains through time, rather than through a correction, is about as much as you can ask for.