American Funds ad

[HeadedWest2029]

Ad in my Facebook feed pointed to this gem so I had to investigate https://www.americanfunds.com/individual/insights/investment-insights/five-american-funds-that-beat-the-first-index-funds-lifetime-results.html?cid=sm_fb_10224

1) Including the sales fee (which was conveniently left out in the chart) results in only one of their promoted funds beating the average over 10 years.
Bonus: sales charges were a whopping 8.5% prior to 1988! I know that reflects how everything was expensive about investing back in the day...crazy!
2) The one fund that did beat the index over 10 years was a large cap growth fund and that's just because that category has outperformed the S&P 500 during that time period.


Anyway, not surprised by the spin, but still enraging nonetheless

[MDM]

See also Investing with American Funds like betting on Tiger Woods - Bogleheads.org for similar thoughts.