Thank you for the thoughtful article.

One question I have is why must direct indexing be considered a form of active management? Sure, if the investor elects to change holdings/weights of index constitutents or not rebalance, then "active bets" are made. However, what if the investor elects holdings/weights of constituents identical to the index, along with index rebalancing, then direct indexing should prove purely passive, right? This choice seems a possible benefit to investors...