It&#x27;s an interesting question that has been covered a lot in the media lately. I&#x27;ve posted here before about an interesting letter that Nevsky Capital, a successful hedge fund, sent to its investors describing the reasons it was shutting down and returning investor money [0]. Among other reasons for shutting down, here is what the letter had to say on your question:<p>- The unintended consequences of those new regulations introduced as a result of the GFC, which have largely removed the market making role of investment banks from global equity markets, has coincided with the recent massive increase in market share of both ‘dumb’ index funds and ‘black box’ algorithmic funds to create a situation where equity market volumes have fallen sharply and individual stock volatility has risen dramatically. An initially badly executed order can now inadvertently create a price trend (because there is no longer the cushion to price moves which was in the past provided by market maker inventories) that, as algorithmic funds feast on it, can create a market event even if the initial order was a simple innocent error. Truly – to mix metaphors – butterflies flapping their wings now regularly create hurricanes that stop out fundamentally driven investors who cannot remain solvent longer than the market can remain irrational.<p>- In such a world dominated by index and algorithmic funds historically logical correlations between different asset classes can remain in place long after they have ceased to be logical. More butterflies.<p>- Index and algorithmic fund manoeuvrings also make it very hard to ascertain what the markets ‘clean’ positioning is at any given time. All of which pushes up the cost of capital.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zerohedge.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2016-01-05&#x2F;why-15-billion-nevsky-capital-shutting-down-full-letter" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.zerohedge.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2016-01-05&#x2F;why-15-billion-nevs...</a>