The Compound and Friends · Monday, September 28, 2026
Erik Hirsch argued that the dispersion of performance in private markets has remained consistently wide over the past 20 years, contrary to predictions that increased capital would compress returns. He attributes this to the vast number of managers and the inherent differences in investment choices.
“The pundits, if you will, have sort of told us over time, "Hey, as this asset class gets bigger and more capital gets raised and time goes by, returns are going to compress." They haven't. So they've actually stayed really wide. The dispersion of performance from kind of top to bottom is basically as big today as it was 20 years ago, despite a lot more capital coming in.”
“So, there are lots of good reasons to be in the private markets. But I would never recommend that a good way to access the private markets, you can't anyhow, would be through an index.”