Trillions

'Grab some popcorn and take a front row seat, because Robin Wigglesworth has an astonishing story to tell you'
Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up

'A terrific read'
Gregory Zuckerman, author of The Man Who Solved the Market

'A fascinating journey and a crucial book'
Bradley Hope, author of Billion Dollar Whale

Fifty years ago, an unlikely group quietly assembled in the financial industry's backwaters, unified by the heretical idea that even the world's best investors couldn't beat the market in the long run. Including economist wunderkind Gene Fama, industry executive Jack Bogle, computer-obsessive John McQuown and former Second World War submariner Nate Most, the group succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Passive investing now likely accounts for over $26 trillion, equal to the entire gross domestic product of the US, and today is a force reshaping markets, finance and even capitalism itself.

Yet even some fans of index funds and ETFs are growing perturbed that their swelling heft is destabilizing markets, wrecking the investment industry and leading to an unwelcome concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands.

In Trillions, Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth unveils the vivid secret history of index funds, bringing to life the colourful characters behind their birth, growth and evolution into a world-conquering phenomenon. It is the untold story behind one of the most pressing financial uncertainties of our time.

'An easy-to-understand and fun read, full of lively characters and little-known details of how finance really works today' Gillian Tett, US editor-at-large at the Financial Times and author of Anthro-Vision