At Obermatt, we have created stock markets that consist entirely of stocks that meet socially responsible investment (SRI) criteria such as family friendly, climate friendly and Corporate Governance stocks. We call them Focus Markets – versus Index Markets that are traditional stock indexes.
The big question is: “Do you have a disadvantage from socially responsible investing?”
The answer is no.
Focus Markets have similar returns as traditional stock indexes. So you don’t “pay” for being socially responsible. As the return comparison for 2012 to 2015 below shows, Obermatt Focus Markets sometimes have more and sometimes have less returns than stock indexes. But overall, they average about the same. We track the performance of both Stock Indexes and Focus Markets on our website.
This doesn’t come as a surprise. Both Obermatt Focus Markets and traditional stock indexes are broadly diversified selections of stocks in the same – highly competitive – overall stock markets. It is expected that such markets have similar return characteristics over time. So you can feel comfortable selecting your top stocks with a good conscience from the Focus Markets.
