Active ETFs: a new threat to passive investing?

The thesis aims to explore the recent growth of actively managed ETFs and assess whether they may represent a "threat" to passively managed funds. The first part provides an overview of the history of ETFs, from the origins of asset management to the widespread adoption of exchange-traded funds, focusing on their functioning, classification, structural advantages and disadvantages, and concluding with a discussion of their growth and the key drivers behind it. The second part presents a comparison between actively and passively managed UCITS ETFs through an empirical analysis that evaluates the risk-adjusted performance of the examined funds using the Jensen model and the Fama and French three-factor model. It also analyzes performance in relation to the associated risk through the Sharpe, Treynor, Sortino and Information ratios, as well as the funds’ market timing ability using the Treynor and Mazuy (1966) model.