Why smart beta might not be such a smart bet...

With passive investing now well established as a great way of gaining diversified market access at a low cost, some product providers are taking the 'next step' in launching so-called smart beta strategies. These products purport to deliver market-beating returns at costs that are more comparable with passive funds than active ones. But what exactly are they and should you be interested? Accepted best practice in passive investing is to track indices that are market-cap weighted: in other words, they have higher weightings in the largest companies by market value. This gives an accura...