The source for the $4.3B is given later in the article:
"Over a course of a year, front-running -- of stocks going into and coming out of indexes -- costs investors in S&P 500 tracker funds at least 0.2 percentage points, according to research published last year by Winton Capital Management Ltd., a quantitative hedge fund that analyzed data from 1990 to 2011. That’s equal to $4.3 billion in lost income in 2014."
Thanks for linking that. What surprises me is that in their simulation which they base the results on - the early 10 years are way different than the later 10 years. The early years show fairly steady growth (although most of it is concentrated in the middle), and the later years (except for one outlier) are really flat.
This suggests to me that while it was a practical strategy, it isn't so much anymore. With index funds smearing their buys over long enough periods the effect shouldn't even be noticeable.
"Over a course of a year, front-running -- of stocks going into and coming out of indexes -- costs investors in S&P 500 tracker funds at least 0.2 percentage points, according to research published last year by Winton Capital Management Ltd., a quantitative hedge fund that analyzed data from 1990 to 2011. That’s equal to $4.3 billion in lost income in 2014."
That paragraph includes a link to https://www.wintoncapital.com/assets/Documents/WWP_HiddenCos...