The founding texts of passive investing are effective-market hypothesis and modern portfolio theory.

These texts put forth theories of the wisdom of the crowd and the importance of diversification. These theories assume that only rational participants are in the markets. While the crowd might be right some of the time, clearly the crowd is not rational. Passive investing will work most of the time.

Over the past few years, the idea of “passive investing” has increasingly resonated with the general public. Money has rushed out of actively-managed mutual funds and into index funds at a rapid rate.

Read more about passive investing:

How passive funds changed investing   Financial Times

Democratising finance: How passive funds changed investing. Judith Evans By contrast, passive investing is a fairly recent arrival. It did not 

Solving the Active Vs. Passive Investing Debate  Barrons

On the flip side, advocates of passive investing point to the long-term inability of most active managers to beat the market and to the high fees 

Active Vs Passive Investing is a Classic Debate for the Trading Ages  TheStreet.com

John Reese, founder and CEO of Validea Capital and manager of the newly launched Validea Market Legends ETF tells TheStreets Jill 

Passive vs. active investing. No debate in 2014  Dallas Morning News

The advantage of passive investing over active investing has been a contentious debate since the creation of the first index fund in the 

iShares says not so fast on passive investing winning the day  InvestmentNews

The success of exchange-traded funds is incorrectly being interpreted as a victory for passive investing. according to executives at BlackRock 

Passive Investing May Cost More in Fees Than You Think  TheStreet.com

If youve been taking advantage of the popular trading strategy known as passive investing. where youre not focused on the day-to-day 

Vanderbilt researchers call for more transparency with passive   Vanderbilt University News

If you have financial assets invested using the popular “passive ” investment strategy, your investment manager may be earning more from your