Is this the dawn of the age of active investing?

There was a buzz in the lobby of Sydney Sheraton hotel on Thursday morning among the fund managers in attendance at The Australian Financial Review Alpha Live conference.

For about six years, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund’s position was that it was not worthwhile investing in active managers. That made it a hard sell for active managers. But its change in position had sales teams clipping the front page of The Australian Financial Review and sending it to institutional clients.