S&P Dow Jones Indices publishes the SPIVA Scorecard twice a year. It compares actively managed funds against the index they are measured on, after fees, and it has been doing so for 25 years. It is the closest thing the industry has to a scoreboard it cannot argue with, because S&P also owns the benchmarks.
In the 2025 year-end report, 79% of all active large-cap US equity funds underperformed the S&P 500. That was worse than the 65% rate in 2024 and the fourth-worst year for large-cap managers in the history of the series.
The single-year number is noisy and moves with market conditions. At mid-2025 the figure was 54%, an improvement, before the second half turned. What does not move is the long horizon: over the 15 years ending December 2024, there was no US equity category in which a majority of active managers beat their benchmark.
The 2024 small-cap result is worth reading carefully, because it shows how easily these numbers get misused. Only 30% of small-cap funds underperformed the S&P SmallCap 600, the best rate on record. S&P attributes it largely to the 16-point gap between large caps and small caps that year: managers who tilted toward larger names captured the spread. That is style exposure, not stock picking.
The lesson for a student is not "active management is pointless". It is that the base rate matters. Before evaluating any strategy, including your own in a challenge, you need to know how often the alternative wins by default. SPIVA gives that base rate, published, updated and free.
Educational material. Not investment advice.