FT Guide to Exchange Traded Funds and Index Funds, 2nd Edition

Foreword

Shortly after 4pm on 11 May 1997, Garry Kasparov further furrowed his customarily furrowed brow. He then shook his head in a rare display of apparent disbelief. He desultorily played bishop takes rook on e7. Seconds later, he rose from his chair, stretched out his arms, and strode away from the table. The world chess champion had resigned in the decisive sixth game of his challenge match against IBM’s super computer, Deep Blue. For the first time, man had lost to machine.

To chess players, and to programmers in the field of artificial intelligence, this was a seismic event. To chess-playing investors, however, it was arguably to be expected – because, in the field of investment management, computer-run index tracking funds had been outperforming ...