Oh yeah? Compare QQQ vs IGV or FDN. Whether you select YTD, 1 Year, 2 Year or 5 Year, IGV and FDN both beat QQQ every time. http://tinyurl.com/y5hym92p
For Year To Date yes, but not for the 1 Year, 2 Year and 5 Year. In fact for 1 Year, SMH is the worst of the 4 ETFs.
The article argued that active fund manager underperformed not because they could not pick good stocks but because in good time too many investors "piled" into their funds and forced them to buy high and in bad time "bailed" out of their funds forced them to sell low. During "normal" time their stock picks outperformed the market. The other fallacy is they did not track the long term performance of each fund, outperformed was likely not consistent year over year. Also, in aggregate, active lagged passive because of fees. As an investor, the bottom line is what counts, not how they get there. As an investor the study said there were hard evidences one could outperform indices. Many on ET demonstrated that to be the case. Happy trading.