Oh great. Now the 'bots are going to be even more powerful in manipulating the markets. Using their "rules-based" system, this gives a powerful incentive to the manipulators to paint the tape, so that a stock can be either included or excluded from the fund's portfolio.
This is from a daily email from the NY Times.

Quote:

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The New York Times
By Amie Tsang
Laurence D. Fink, the founder and chief executive of BlackRock, has cast his lot with the machines.
BlackRock, the largest fund company in the world, plans to consolidate a large number of actively managed mutual funds with those that rely more on algorithms and models to pick stocks.
The move is the most explicit action by a major fund management firm to try to take advantage of the increasing opportunities in lower-cost computer driven funds.
About $30 billion in assets, or 11 percent of the firm’s active equity funds, will be included. The funds will focus on strategies that adopt a more rules-based approach to investing. Seven of BlackRock’s 53 stock pickers are expected to step down, but some will stay on as advisers. At least 36 employees connected to the funds will leave the firm.
“The democratization of information has made it much harder for active management,” Mr. Fink said.
Could this be the end of the cult of the brainy mutual fund manager?

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