Billionaire Warren Buffett, whose stock picks over several decades have enriched generations of Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders, delivered a black eye to the investment industry on Saturday, urging ordinary investors to buy plain-vanilla index funds. “When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients,” Buffett said in his annual letter to shareholders. “Both large and small investors should stick with low-cost index funds,” he added.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) has unveiled an exchange-traded fund which tracks the 50 US equities that are most recurring in the top 10 positions across a wide range of US-based hedge funds. The ETF thereby provides investors with a cost efficient means of accessing the highest-conviction ideas of some of the best managers in the hedge fund industry. Michael Crinieri, Head of ETF Strategies at GSAM, commented: “We’re thrilled to be able to package these high conviction investment ideas from a broad array of professional investors into a cost effective, tax-efficient and convenient ETF wrapper.”

JP Morgan Asset Management has introduced its first alternative and actively managed exchange-traded fund. The JP Morgan Diversified Alternatives ETF (NYSE: JPHF) provides investors with diversified exposure to hedge fund strategies including equity long/short, event driven and global macro strategies. Robert Deutsch, Head of ETFs for JP Morgan Asset Management, commented: “In the past, alternative investments have been an exclusive option only accessible by a small portion of investors; however, JPHF now makes these investment vehicles available to a wider array of investors.”

“Passive investing is worse than Marxism.” That’s according to analysts at research and brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co in a recent paper that has sparked one of the hottest debates in the ongoing active-versus-passive conversation. Bernstein said that passive funds, such as ETFs, threaten the very structure of capitalism, arguing that “a supposedly capitalist economy where the only investment is passive is worse than either a centrally planned economy or an economy with active market led capital management.”

Canadian exchange-traded fund provider Horizons ETFs has launched an actively managed ETF designed to keep risk levels balanced across all invested asset classes, regardless of market conditions. The Horizons Global Risk Parity ETF (Toronto: HRA) is the first locally listed ETF to offer Canadian investors access to a risk-parity strategy. Risk Parity theory states that optimal diversification is achieved through assigning portfolio allocations which target a balanced contribution of risk from each asset class. Steve Hawkins, Co-CEO, Horizons ETFs, said: “HRA strives to keep risk levels across asset classes similar to one another, which can result in lower overall volatility and potentially higher risk-adjusted returns.”

Toronto-based exchange-traded fund provider Dhandho Funds has launched an ETF that combines three investment strategies into one convenient solution. The Dhandho Junoon ETF (NYSE Arca: JUNE) tracks the Dhandho Junoon Index which uses a proprietary, rules-based methodology to select approximately 100 US equities, MLPs and American depositary receipts listed on the NYSE, NYSE Arca and the Nasdaq Exchange from three categories of issuers: share buybacks, select value manager holdings, and spin-offs. “We are pleased to bring to market a fund that takes three distinct strategies and marries them together in one unique strategy,” said Mohnish Pabrai, Founder and CEO of Dhandho Funds.

Reality Shares, a specialist index provider and exchange-traded fund issuer, has announced the launch of two new ETFs on the BATS Exchange. The Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Defender ETF (DFND) and the Reality Shares DIVCON Dividend Guard ETF (GARD) both leverage the firm’s DIVCON dividend health rating methodology to provide tactical long or short exposure to companies based on their perceived likelihood of increasing or decreasing their dividend levels.

WisdomTree, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds, has expanded their line-up of ETFs listed on the BATS Exchange with two innovative new hedge fund-style product launches: the WisdomTree Dynamic Long/Short US Equity Fund (DYLS) and the WisdomTree Dynamic Bearish US Equity Fund (DYB). Jeremy Schwartz, WisdomTree Director of Research, commented: “WisdomTree’s strategies challenge the traditional long/short and hedge fund community with systematic, liquid long/short index-based ETFs. DYLS and DYB are designed to generate alpha at the core through quantitative and fundamental stock selection – while also having the ability to hedge market risk dynamically.”

Global X Funds, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that the Global X GURU Index ETF (NYSE Arca: GURU) has been awarded a five-star Morningstar rating. The accolade is reflective of the fund’s impressive risk-adjusted performance in relation to fee level since its inception on 4 June 2012. During the period between the fund’s launch and 31 August 2015, the Global X GURU Index ETF had a total return of 77.5%, or 23.6% per annum. During the same period, the S&P 500 returned a total of 46.6%.

With ETFGI announcing that the ETF market has exceeded hedge funds this week, Tim Edwards, Senior Director of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices looks at why this might be the case. By replicating a hedge fund strategy and comparing it to the HFRI Weighted Composite benchmark he notes: After fees, the hypothetical hedge fund performs more or less in line with the benchmark; and the average hedge fund looks like a fixed blend of cheap investments, but at a high cost.