GMO versus Vanguard: Assessing the Performance of Comparable Funds

Abstract

GMO is a well known mutual fund company that serves wealthy clients. The minimum investment for a mutual fund account is 10 million dollars. GMO’s web site is a font of useful and entertaining information. Should the Vanguard investor who can’t afford to invest with GMO be envious of the wealthy who have access to GMO funds? This paper asks whether the GMO funds that have similar Vanguard counterparts over‐return or under‐return their Vanguard counterparts, and by how much. Some of the Vanguard counterparts are indexed. Thus, this paper also provides evidence on whether stock pickers can beat indexers.