Asset Management

Stock-pickers will struggle in 2020, says analyst — because of bonds

Bernstein analyst Sarah McCarthy says active funds’ performance appears to have declined thanks to volatility in government bond yields — and that does not bode well for their prospects

Active fund managers have had a tough year, and that’s likely to continue into 2020, according to Bernstein strategist Sarah McCarthy.

So far in 2019, all of the long-only fund groups tracked by Bernstein — those that buy securities, rather than seeking to gain from declines in their prices — are underperforming their respective benchmarks, wrote McCarthy in a Wednesday note.

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