PIMCO’s product addresses a significant issue: If you believe indexed, passive management is the best or primary way to go, are you then limited to the returns inherent in that index? Or can you manage to do better, and if so, how much better? PIMCO’s answer is you can do better, and the authors outline a way to do it.

In December 1998, Dow Jones Indexes and the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) announced joint ventures to develop a new set of investable equity indexes and debt and commodity indexes with associated futures contracts.