From Mr Colin Barrett.

Sir, In his piece “Trackers are crackers” (Money, December 13/14) Jason Britton asserts that while it would have been very hard to pick one of the nine (out of 177) actively managed funds that have outperformed the FTSE All-Share since March 2000, one would have had a “much better chance” of selecting one of the 89 (out of 177) that outperformed from March 2000 to March 2003; one of the 78 (out of 236) that outperformed from March 2003 to July 2007; and one of the 71 (out of 317) that have outperformed from July 2007 to November 2008.