Just as in actively managed portfolios, whether second generation
indices add value over their benchmarks, depends on the skills of
the professionals supplying the index. The BIR research
consortium was founded in 2002 to enable its members provide their
independent research to investment banks in the Global Research
Settlement. Previously, members’ research was only available to
institutional investors. After an extensive interviewing process
involving over 65 firms, five members were admitted into the league.
Final provider selection was based on the candidate’s recommendation
accuracy, independence and their industry experience. The
strong member performance has been reconfirmed each year since
2002.Member’s industry performance standings appear in rank tables
maintained by the major third-party performance monitors.
Investment Advisors
are currently limited to using top-down strategies in managing ETF
portfolios. Now BIR’s new ETFs enable them to improve their
portfolios returns by harnessing the bottom-up stock selection
expertise of five of the country’s top performing research firms.
Investars, http://www.investars.com, is an independent research
monitor that measures the research accuracy of investment banks,
brokers and independent research providers. As of April 18,
2007, Investars’ site showed that for firms covering over 500
companies, the BIR members took 25% of the top ten spots for the
1-year, 2-year and 3-year periods ending April 1, 2007.