Process / Management
Prudent investing is a rational process. It involves deciding how much risk to take, then choosing asset classes to match an investor's preferred risk-return tradeoff. We build strategies to deliver precise risk dimensions to investors. But we are not a traditional investment manager—and traditional labels do not fit.
Structuring a strategy around compensated risk factors lends purpose to an investor's portfolio. Rather than analyzing individual securities, investing becomes a relatively simple matter of deciding how much stock to hold versus bonds, and how small or large, and value- or growth-tilted the stocks should be. By focusing on what matters, Dimensional focuses your efforts.

Traditional managers do one of two things: Active managers focus on picking individual stocks, the antithesis of diversification; index managers hold many securities but mimic arbitrary benchmarks.

Dimensional chooses a different path. It structures strategies based on scientific evidence rather than on speculation or commercial indexes. Small cap strategies target smaller stocks more consistently. Value strategies target value returns with greater focus. As a result, investors achieve more consistent portfolio structure.
Dimensional Management Compared to Traditional Portfolio Management
Dimensional Management Compared to
Traditional Portfolio Management
Related content from the Library
A transcript of Rex Sinquefield's opening statement in a debate about active vs. passive management with Donald Yacktman at the Schwab Institutional conference in San Francisco, October 12, 1995.