Maybe you’ve seen this, but, the original paper MSCI published has been slyly updated. MSCI has slipped in an extra page, pg 6. They have provided an “extended” backtest (10 years instead of the original 5), and they are using a list of companies provided by CalSTRS for the back test! It’s not clear if the CalSTRS list is the companies within the CalSTRS portfolio, but we do know that CalSTRS is a client of MSCI and, per this paper, they are looking at the risk of divestment. Here’s the same ol graph (showing if you divest, your portfolio looks a lot like you didn’t change anything…ie low risk):
Tracking error .99%, and remember that active investing has an average of 5% tracking error. Please get this out there. The data is piling up.