---
title: "The typical global active equity fund beat the S&P 500. More than half the money did not."
url: "https://etf.net/news/active-funds-split-vs-sp-500-2026-11-10"
published_at: "2026-11-10T16:09:46.163Z"
updated_at: "2026-11-10T16:09:46.163Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# The typical global active equity fund beat the S&P 500. More than half the money did not.

Four funds held $14.2 billion of the $26.1 billion in etf.net's Global Active Equity category, and the median fund beat the S&P 500 fund, 14.3% to 13.4%, over the year through Nov. 9, 2026.

By ETF.net Research. Published Nov 10, 2026.

The median fund in etf.net's Global Active Equity category returned **14.3%** over the year through Nov. 9, 2026. State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF, SPY, returned **13.4%**, dividends included.

More than half the money was in four funds that each trailed SPY.

The category held $26.1 billion across 44 funds. The four largest with a one-year record held $14.2 billion of that.

The table includes SPY for comparison. Returns include dividends for the year through Nov. 9, 2026.

Table: Fund, One-year return

Chart: The four largest funds sat below the S&P 500

SPY is the U.S. stock fund a holder could have owned instead. JGLO, the largest fund, aims to beat the MSCI World Index, which on Sept. 30, 2026, was 72.9% United States and 3.3% Canada, MSCI reported. That benchmark was already mostly U.S. stocks.

## JPMorgan Global Select Equity ETF and the MSCI World

The fund seeks long-term gains from large companies in developed markets that are attractively valued, have strong free cash flow and can keep earnings growing. That is the approach in J.P. Morgan's [fact sheet](https://am.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm-am-aem/americas/us/en/literature/fact-sheet/etfs/FS-JGLO.PDF) for Sept. 30, 2026.

The fact sheet put the fund's gain at 7.91% at net asset value, the per-share value of what it owns, over the year through Sept. 30. The MSCI World Index returned 15.24% over that year, MSCI reported, on a net basis that counts dividends after withholding tax. The fund trailed by 7.3 percentage points.

The 7.2% in the table is a later window, the year through Nov. 9, 2026.

Over the three years through Sept. 30, 2026, the fund had returned 17.41% a year on that sheet, against 21.40% a year for the index, the annualized net return MSCI reported.

North America was 71.8% of the fund on Sept. 30, the fact sheet said. The United States was 72.9% of the index that day, and Canada was 3.3%, MSCI reported, so the fund was a little lighter on North America than the benchmark.

## Two funds that beat the S&P 500

Avantis All Equity Markets ETF, AVGE, returned 20.1%. Dimensional World Equity ETF, DFAW, returned 17.0%. Both include dividends.

Avantis charges 0.23%, and Dimensional charges 0.24%, about half of the 0.47% on JGLO's fact sheet.

Of the category's $26.1 billion, AVGE and DFAW held $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion. Together that was $3.0 billion, against $14.2 billion in the four funds that trailed SPY.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/active-funds-split-vs-sp-500-2026-11-10. Please cite the page URL.