Trillions

How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever

By: Robin Wigglesworth

Narrated by: Christopher Grove

From the Financial Times' global finance correspondent, the incredible true story of the iconoclastic geeks who defied conventional wisdom and endured Wall Street's scorn to launch the index fund revolution, democratizing investing and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in fees that would have otherwise lined fat cats' pockets.

Fifty years ago, the Manhattan Project of money management was quietly assembled in the financial industry's backwaters, unified by the heretical idea that even many of the world's finest investors couldn't beat the market in the long run.

The motley crew of nerds - including economist wunderkind Gene Fama, humiliated industry executive Jack Bogle, bull-headed and computer-obsessive John McQuown, and avuncular former WWII submariner Nate Most - succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Passive investing now accounts for more than $20 trillion, equal to the entire gross domestic product of the US, and is today a force reshaping markets, finance, and even capitalism itself in myriad subtle but pivotal ways.

Yet even some fans of index funds and ETFs are growing perturbed that their swelling heft is destabilizing markets, wrecking the investment industry and leading to an unwelcome concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands.

In Trillions, Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth unveils the vivid secret history of an invention Wall Street wishes was never created, bringing to life the characters behind its birth, growth, and evolution into a world-conquering phenomenon. This engrossing narrative is essential listening for anyone who wants to understand modern finance - and one of the most pressing financial uncertainties of our time.

©2021 Robin Wigglesworth (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A magisterial, delightfully written history offering up portraits of the academic scribblers and entrepreneurial practitioners who created the index-fund revolution. It also contains common-sense wisdom that will benefit all investors... With consummate skill, he brings to life the eggheads and the “iconoclastic” investors who guided indexing through its difficult birth pangs and oversaw its exponential development...A rip-roaring yarn.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“​​With well-researched accumulation of one story after another, Wigglesworth brings to life how all aspects of investing have been transformed by indexation....But Wigglesworth manages to bring life to even well raked-over events, such as the boardroom bust-up that led to the birth of Vanguard or BlackRock’s “deal of the decade” acquisition...[a] first-rate book.” (The Financial Times)

“A thoroughly reported and engaging account, featuring characters including the indomitable John \"Jack\" Bogle, founder of the Vanguard fund powerhouse, Larry Fink, architect of the even-larger BlackRock, and Louis Bachelier, a French mathematician whose 1900 PhD thesis made an early contribution to the academic underpinnings of passive investing...an enjoyable read.” (Reuters)

High Quality - Actionable for Investors

This is an excellent book with a clear and precise narrator.

This book actually gets better was you go. The final chapters are essential for any investor. Covers the mathematical relationship of indexing to mega caps.

Also insights on Bonds and Governance. The indexers are now giants of the Corporate boards by mere virtue of the passive holding in various fund types. It's a dangerous and unprecedented hack for companies like Blackrock. Essentially, Index users are trying to passively own the fund to free-ride on the volatility of the market without owning actively-managed fund, but the shares reside with a holding company like StateStreet, BlackRock, or Vanguard. Now these companies get to cast all the proxy votes for the passive investors. It's real.

Epic hack that StateStreet, BlackRock, and Vanguard that are basically market parasites for passive owners. Instead of distributing 100M little micro-votes to the ACTUAL owners of their Index Fund, they claim actual ownership. Enjoy the book.

I feel informed

I had a hard time following the lingo (mind you am not new to the investments world) and the non-stop mentioned of an fund acronym rather than repeating what that fund was, got me lost several times. But other than that I got a better understanding of ETF and made the connection that my investments is screwing with the wrold.

REALLY entertaining!!

I know it sounds weird but this book is SO FUN, I listened to parts of it several times just to get the great stories being told. Best of all, while not “technical” you will learn a lot about what index and ETF funds are and, of course, the history. Very well read by Christopher Grove

Deep Dive

Interesting deep dive into finance. Crazy how passive investment drives so much of our current world.

Absolutely fascinating

It’s difficult to take something as esoteric as index funds and make the story interesting. Wigglesworth and Grove succeed in making the story riveting. Highly recommend for anyone interested in financial history or the ongoing debate between active vs passive investing.

Indexing then and now

Excellent flow of the story and a balanced review of the evolution of indexing. Interesting theoretical future issues for indices and corporate governance.

the interesting history of the index fund

Interesting and engaging story about the history of the index funds (currently an investment of many retirement plans). Passive index funds (just invest in the stocks that are in the index, such as the S&P 500) have shown a better return over time than active funds (where a fund manager is actively buying and selling stocks based on their own research).

Intriguing presentation of the names behind and concerns of exchange traded funds

I liked the focus on the characters and short stories that, sometimes humorously, shed light on this gnarly fund business. Of those anecdotes, the one about the fish was the best.

The stuff about Bogle was heartbreaking, but even Keynes was highly flawed. Aren’t we all!

Reminded me of Gross in the Bond King by Mary Childs. Do we really want to pay the price to be great?

Anyway… unlike the book on Gross, the treatment of power complexes was a divergence because the book is about funds and not about Bogle.

I appreciated that section though. So if you like gossip on power trips, this Bud’s for you!

If you trade options on highly liquid ETFs, this book explains the nature of your underlying financial instruments.

The section on bond funds was the most enlightening section if you had put no thought into how the funds could have been constructed.

A fresh look on passive index investing

I highly recommend this book. It gives a fresh, unbiased perspective on the passive index investing revolution. I enjoyed how it showed both sides to the argument of passive versus active investing.

Excellent book about history of Passive investing … worth reading/ listening to

Excellent book about history of Passive investing … worth reading/ listening to
I liked and enjoyed it