That same concept can be dropped into cataloging, where even in the old days, when librarians described books within the boundaries of a physical index card, great variation still occurred.

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There is a wide variation around the index return which at the tail can be devastating.

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The remaining 10% of funds that outperformed the index can be attributed to chance variation since they did not consistently outperform over several years.

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Mr Aisbitt noted that Australia's All Ordinaries Index has varied by 14.6% in the last 30 days, from an average 30-day variation during the last year of 15.5%.

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