Hmm, if smart beta is a trend, and it's losing money, doesn't that mean it's improving everyone else's returns? Also, when the article says "The median fund ha

Hmm, if smart beta is a trend, and it's losing money, doesn't that mean it's improving everyone else's returns? Also, when the article says "The median fund has lost about 1.5% on a total return basis, compared with a more than 10% gain for the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF." It makes me think of stuff I've read about how a low return can be much more valuable than it seems, if it is not correlated with the stock market. There is some financial engineering magic where you can actually transmute the lack of correlation into increased returns.