The Globe and Mail attempts to identify passive funds outperforming their categories this year in its Thursday, Dec. 14, edition. The Globe's guest columnist Ian Tam writes in the Number Cruncher column that there are now 1,410 exchange traded funds that trade on Canadian exchanges. Less than half (or 513) of these ETFs are passively managed, highlighting the fact that the Canadian ETF space has evolved far past the basic market-cap-weighted approach for investors to gain broad market exposure. However, the original case for using ETFs is still very much a valid one, despite the arrival of more sophisticated products. Case in point, of those 513 passive ETFs, 226 of them have beaten their category average over the first 11 months of 2023. Clearly, being boring pays off, and it is certainly easier on the wallet given their low management expense ratios relative to active funds. Mr. Tam has chosen for this column ETFs that have not only been beating their categories this year, but have done so over a longer history and on a risk-adjusted, after-fee basis. Three of Mr. Tam's outperforming ETFs are TD International Equity CAD Hedged Index ETF, Horizons S&P 500 Index ETF and Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF.