<prompt> Human: So this is something that gets said a lot, but doesnt seem to have many citations, so I decided to run my own tests.I checked every actively managed mutual fund that was recommended by Money in 2009 The Money 70 and compared them to Vanguards total stock market index over the same time period.The results were somewhat surprising. 17 of the 26 funds performed better than the index year to year, and 20 of the 26 performed better than the index over the time period examined. Thats a far cry from the 10-50 number that gets thrown around a lot.Heres a huge table of each funds yearly performance since 2000:Ticker2000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012Total:----:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:--:VTSMX-11.32-6.79-20.3227.269.6912.2810.811.84-32.3628.4615.071.4917.7339.17---------------AMRMX-0.212.19-14.1916.736.653.318.27-6.02-28.3520.258.332.2411.5221.85SSHFX10.09-3.79-13.1026.496.875.233.32-11.11-32.1126.129.36-6.3918.5824.97VWNFX11.40-0.39-14.9826.0416.2010.928.74-10.38-32.2826.409.362.7918.1069.74FAIRX41.876.67-1.3723.3719.1515.859.2612.34-28.7341.3413.13-35.1637.14216.16FMIHX---11.0227.3114.0812.9011.16-1.21-22.6128.0010.82-0.7114.2399.50SLASX0.00-9.98-16.6526.919.2714.1010.390.53-35.6529.788.78-3.487.3924.07AMCPX-4.73-6.51-18.4525.776.559.452.55-3.44-35.6936.5711.690.8915.7920.89JENSX13.126.71-9.4212.155.571.0512.163.29-24.7926.2410.75-0.3915.3883.16TRBCX-7.65-10.27-22.3925.016.4111.785.668.30-38.4340.5215.642.0718.9832.97FDVLX5.8814.74-9.3730.8210.7114.011.99-11.06-41.8844.5116.15-6.7421.8082.72JMCVX17.8620.46-12.9337.929.3110.295.240.35-26.5130.0812.18-2.6010.91151.48FAMVX17.7315.19-5.0619.3014.019.412.88-12.01-24.2522.7315.46-0.7414.48111.53FPPFX6.1214.01-11.4829.8311.7618.21-3.30-5.39-34.3747.7619.29-3.079.83106.94MERDX14.686.35-19.2145.398.126.717.04-1.69-28.1134.7128.76-5.9114.61133.87POAGX-----21.4613.68-5.78-28.8650.4217.00-0.6522.2897.87PNVDX---27.3510.3712.053.84-5.91-21.5524.8121.153.3413.00113.12TASCX12.9516.28-10.6136.7515.0115.122.68-10.85-31.1026.9112.95-5.0316.94113.43PENNX-4.9010.44-10.6532.948.4115.202.42-10.17-30.8337.6319.83-2.489.0973.97RYVPX---14.6676.3720.1423.5911.32-2.91-37.2842.5214.47-6.7015.52166.43PRNHX-16.442.47-25.6546.6413.1517.16-3.40-9.20-36.8344.4427.55-7.139.6628.68BRAGX5.05-6.46-14.9449.597.5725.92-0.3320.62-52.9624.0414.90-9.4722.6351.55MUHLX29.739.96-18.0242.2420.6915.95-1.54-11.66-35.7431.734.22-4.634.7778.46WEHIX-11.60-2.22-31.0248.1318.815.4419.36-17.05-36.9436.7134.433.4519.7957.31CSRSX16.042.29-1.9926.6819.0614.8216.08-38.21-33.6530.4323.234.348.2974.14TAREX29.5515.242.9833.2122.8715.8314.01-22.01-40.5936.9018.23-12.9625.86173.07PRNEX7.39-6.29-5.2729.7117.6634.600.5338.34-47.8649.4310.59-17.200.6595.56Here are some cluttered graphs:Yearly ReturnsCumulative ReturnsHeres the list of all the funds:Fund NameTickerExpense RatioStrategyAnnualized Returns2009-Present:--:----::----:--:Vanguard Total Stock Market Index FundVTSMX0.17Total Stocks2.5717.02------American Funds American Mutual FundAMRMX0.63Value1.5312.32Sound Shore FundSSHFX0.94Value1.7314.15Windsor II FundVWNFX0.35Value4.1515.78Fairholme FundFAIRX1.00Blend9.2612.62FMI Large Cap FundFMIHX0.96Blend6.4814.79Selected American Shares FundSLASX0.95Blend1.6711.96American Funds AMCAP FundAMCPX0.74Growth1.4717.32Jensen Quality Growth FundJENSX0.91Growth4.7714.38T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth FundTRBCX0.76Growth2.2219.55Fidelity Value FundFDVLX0.68Value4.7519.47Perkins Mid Cap Value FundJMCVX0.84Value7.3513.59Fenimore Asset Management Trust Value FundFAMVX1.22Blend5.9314.51FPA Perennial FundFPPFX1.02Growth5.7518.79Meridian Growth FundMERDX0.85Growth6.7517.52PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth FundPOAGX0.68Growth8.9023.83AllianzGI NFJ Small-Cap Value FundPNVDX1.22Value7.8616.45Third Avenue Small Cap Value FundTASCX1.13Blend6.0113.64Royce Pennsylvania Mutual FundPENNX0.91Blend4.3515.89Royce Value Plus FundRYVPX1.45Growth9.3215.95T. Rowe Price New Horizons FundPRNHX0.80Growth1.9619.08Bridgeway Aggressive Investors 1 FundBRAGX1.33Multi3.2515.08Muhlenkamp FundMUHLX1.27Multi4.5610.80Weitz Series Fund Hickory FundWEHIX1.28Multi3.5523.04Cohen Steers Realty Shares FundCSRSX1.00Specialty4.3617.35Third Avenue Real Estate Value FundTAREX1.09Specialty8.0315.91T. Rowe Price New Era FundPRNEX0.67Specialty5.298.49Vanguard 500 Index FundVFINX0.17Large Cap Index1.8416.18This may result in a bit of controversy, so let me stem it a little bit.Obviously this isnt every possible mutual fund out there; these are just the stock based funds that were recommended back in 2009 by Money. I am in no way implying that actively managed funds are better choices than passive indexes. Secondly, this data set is fairly narrow. The data only goes back to 2000, and 4 of the funds chosen were created post-2000.Yearly returns were calculated based on reinvested dividends and fund price on the first trading Friday of each year.Comparisons for funds that were created post 2000 were compared year by year to the total stock index IOW: FMIHX was only compared from 2002-2012 to VTSMX from 2002-2012.I also threw in how each fund has done since the article was posted, annualized returns since Jan 1, 2009 to present. Only 9 of the 26 funds have beaten the total stock index. I think this more than proves that people are good at picking funds that have performed well in the past, and poor at picking funds that will perform well in the future.Heres how the funds have done since 2009.Hopefully you all find this data as interesting as I do.  <response>: Nice posting :Another measure to performance of similar assets is the Sharpe Ratio. The Sharpe ratio characterizes how well the return of an asset compensates the investor for the risk taken. When comparing two assets versus a common benchmark, the one with a higher Sharpe ratio provides better return for the same risk or, equivalently, the same return for lower risk.Ticker3-Year Sharpe:---:---PRNHX1.16WEHIX1.09AMRMX1.04CSRSX1.00MERDX0.97VFINX0.90PNVDX0.89VTSMX0.89TRBCX0.87POAGX0.86FAMVX0.84FMIHX0.83VWNFX0.79JENSX0.78FDVLX0.78AMCPX0.77TASCX0.77PENNX0.74TAREX0.74FPPFX0.73SLASX0.67JMCVX0.66SSHFX0.63BRAGX0.63RYVPX0.55MUHLX0.53PRNEX0.30FAIRX0.25Source: Yahoo Finance 