You can barely hear the quiet hum of money being invested — money in scarcely imaginable quantities, pouring into low-cost index mutual funds<br />and exchange-traded funds (E. T.F.s) that track financial markets.<br />“Since the crisis, investors have been saying, ‘I may not be able to control the market,<br />but I can control how much I pay in mutual fund expenses.’ And when they look for quality funds with low fees, the first answer is Vanguard.”<br />See how the largest, leading and lagging funds compare.<br />The triumph of index fund investing means Vanguard’s traders funnel as much as $2 billion a day into stocks like Apple, Microsoft<br />and Amazon, as well as thousands of smaller companies that the firm’s fleet of funds track.<br />It is manageable, in large part, because no stock-picking is involved: The money simply flows into index funds<br />and E. T.F.s, and through February of this year, nine out of every 10 dollars invested in a United States mutual fund or E. T.F.
