The launch of the Vanguard First Index Investment Trust, 50 years ago this month, could have gone better. Jack Bogle, Vanguard’s founder, called it “an abject(彻底的，极度的) failure”. He had hoped to raise somewhere between $50m and $150m, but got only a little over $11m ($65m today). As the first fund aiming to do no more than track a stock-market index—America’s S&P 500—that was available to individual investors, it nevertheless raised hackles.(作为首只仅跟踪股市指数（标普500）且面向个人投资者的基金，它仍然引起了众怒。) “One conclusion, usually expressed with considerable feeling, is that index funds are a ‘cop-out(逃避，借口)’ and a fad(一时的风尚，短暂的热潮) that will soon disappear,” sniffed(轻蔑地说，嗤之以鼻) an article in the Financial Analysts Journal, published later the same year.
50年前的这个月，先锋领航第一指数投资信托的推出本可以更顺利。先锋领航创始人杰克·博格尔称其为“彻底的失败”。他原本希望筹集5000万至1.5亿美元，但最终仅获得略超1100万美元（相当于今天的6500万美元）。作为首只旨在跟踪股市指数（美国标普500指数）且面向个人投资者的基金，它仍然引起了众怒。“有一种结论，通常带着强烈的情绪表达，认为指数基金是一种‘逃避’和即将消失的时尚，”同年晚些时候发表在《金融分析师杂志》上的一篇文章嗤之以鼻。
Half a century on(半个世纪过去了), there is no sign of that. Over 50% of net assets overseen(监管，监督) by American investment funds are in trackers(指数追踪基金), estimates the Investment Company Institute, an industry group. For funds focused on domestic stocks, the share is 64%. Whether through your own savings, a corporate pension scheme or a university endowment(捐赠基金), you probably have a stake in(在……中拥有股份或利益) at least one.
半个世纪过去了，这种迹象毫无踪影。据行业组织美国投资公司协会估计，美国投资基金监管的净资产中，超过50%投资于指数追踪基金。对于专注于国内股票的基金，这一比例达到64%。无论是通过个人储蓄、企业养老金计划还是大学捐赠基金，你很可能至少在其中一只基金中持有份额。
Predictably, the professional stock-pickers whose lunch has been eaten(饭碗被抢，生计被夺) are as furious as ever. “Worse than Marxism,” thundered(怒吼，大声斥责) Bernstein, a broker, in 2016. Last month Terry Smith, a favourite fund manager of British retail savers, spent much of his half-yearly investor letter blaming his long underperformance(表现不佳，业绩落后) on “a market which is dominated by so-called passive or index funds”. Full disclosure(充分披露，如实相告): your columnist, who used to own units in one of Mr Smith’s funds, took this rant(咆哮，长篇大论) as his cue to sell them and reinvest in a global-equity tracker.
不出所料，那些饭碗被抢的专业选股人士一如既往地愤怒。“比马克思主义还糟糕，”券商伯恩斯坦在2016年怒吼道。上个月，英国散户投资者喜爱的基金经理特里·史密斯在其半年度的投资者信函中，花了大量篇幅将自己长期表现不佳归咎于“一个被所谓被动或指数基金主导的市场”。充分披露：本专栏作者曾持有史密斯先生旗下基金的份额，他将这番咆哮视为卖出这些份额并重新投资于全球股票指数基金的契机。