Vanguard Clients Stayed Put During Wild Market Swings

One of the most common critiques of index funds could be much ado about nothing. Amid concerns that passive index fund investors would sell out of their positions at the first sign of a correction, clients at Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard showed little response to the stock market volatility of the past few weeks. In an analysis sampled from 8 million U.S. investor households including both individual investors and 401(k) participants, the index investing powerhouse found that 97 percent of households did not trade at all. Even on the most volatile days, trading rarely exceeds one percent of all households, said Vanguard. Remarkably, Vanguard’s clients have controlled their investment behaviors through market volatility despite the company’s hands-off approach. In 2015, Vanguard launched a hybrid roboadvisor, Personal Advisor Services, which has become the largest digital advice provider in the world with $101 billion in client assets as of Dec.

from FA News https://www.fa-mag.com/news/vanguard-clients-stayed-put-during-wild-market-swings-37219.html