Investments September 8, 2026 ⋅ 12 min
Most active managers underperform their benchmarks, but Value Line has a long enough record of exceptions that the Value Line Effect is cited as an anomaly for the Efficient Market Hypothesis. This analysis compares seven Value Line funds to factor-matched index fund clones over 2015–2024, built with the Fama-French five-factor model. Index clones won in five of seven cases. Value Line's mid cap growth and small cap growth funds outperformed, which is a rare result.