The Commission concluded that, over this period as a whole, no significant difference existed between the performance of investment companies and that of the common stock index. The performance of investment companies was slightly poorer than the index during years of rising security prices and better than the index during periods of declining stock prices. The study goes on to say: "As the performance of these investment companies was substantially that of a common stock index”which may be regarded essentially as an unmanaged portfolio”it appears that the typical investment company over the past decade failed to meet the sometimes avowed objective of a performance surpassing such an index." The Commission also noted that in the period 1930-1935 an investor would have been better off if he had kept his funds on deposit in a savings bank, or in government or other high-grade bonds, than in a typical or average investment company. This statement was qualified by the admission that there was no indication of the extent to which the average individual investor in securities actually achieved a performance as good as the common stock index or typical investment company. Various studies tend strongly to support the view that most investors would be happy if their results approximated the stock market average.

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