Study Says World's Stocks Controlled by Select Few

Re:Study Says World's Stocks Controlled by Select Few by gwern on Saturday August 29, 2009 @10:45AM (#793228)

> Take Vanguard or Fidelity for example, they "control" a vast amount of money, but all they do with it is track indices on behalf of their retail customers.

Control or power doesn't disappear, any more than mass-energy does - if Vanguard or Fidelity aren't controlling the billions in index funds, then who is?

The answer should be obvious: whomever decides who to include in an index. This is part of the reason public companies are so eager to be listed in the Dow or Nasdaq or S&P 500; they know that listing guarantees demand from the many index trackers etc.

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Re:Study Says World's Stocks Controlled by Select Few by nandemo on Saturday August 29, 2009 @11:28PM (#794017)

> Control or power doesn't disappear, any more than mass-energy does - if Vanguard or Fidelity aren't controlling the billions in index funds, then who is?

The investors who own shares in the mutual funds?

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Re:Study Says World's Stocks Controlled by Select Few by gwern on Sunday August 30, 2009 @04:18AM (#794238)

Mutual fund investors no more affect the decision of the fund managers - and certainly not the indices' management - than does a random voter in even a swing state.

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Re:Study Says World's Stocks Controlled by Select Few by gaius on Sunday August 30, 2009 @03:38AM (#794215)

Exactly. A fund is in a very real sense a democracy. You 'vote' for a fund manager's decisions by investing and vote against by withdrawing.

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