Our proprietary universe construction methodology is applied to a larger dataset. Greater variety and quantity offers an opportunity to create new, more specific universes. As would be expected, quadrupling the number of funds caused some changes to universe percentiles for trailing and calendar year periods. The most pronounced changes were among those that had the greatest percentage increase in the number of funds.
More data points makes a normal distribution more probable.
Previously, universes had an average of 80 funds, and the largest universe, Broad Equity, represented 568 funds. Now, the average has jumped to 280, with 1274 funds in the Broad Equity Universe. Greater coverage for specific universes such as Pure Small Cap Value Aggressive enables you to compare performance to a more substantial peer group without sacrificing universe specificity. We suggest that you do not update calendar year universe data. We plan to expand our offerings of bond and money market universes as well.