Respect in investing often is measured in dollars, and investors this year have been putting money into some actively managed mutual funds. But only a select few: Funds that focus either on smaller-cap stocks or on stocks that look cheaper than the rest of the market have attracted new investment.

Otherwise, investors are continuing their years-long migration toward index mutual funds. It’s a trend called passive investing and it’s built on funds that aim to match the performance of a stock index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500, rather than try to beat it. Fans of passive investing say selecting which stock pickers will do well is tough enough to begin with, and index funds have lower expenses to boot. U.S. stock funds run by stock pickers have lost $10 billion this year through investor withdrawals, according to Morningstar.

Managers of small- and mid-cap stock funds, though, say they have several advantages over others that give them a better chance to beat their benchmark indexes.

So how have investors fared if they chose mutual funds run by stock pickers? The recent track record is poor.

During the five years through June 30, only 22 percent of small-cap mutual funds beat the returns of the small-cap S&P 600 index, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The numbers are about the same for funds focused on larger companies. Only 21 percent of large-cap funds beat the S&P 500, and only 18 percent of mid-cap funds topped the S&P 400 mid-cap index.

Stock pickers concede that the last few years have been difficult for them because stocks had been moving together in herds.

Even if one company looked much stronger financially than another, both tended to move in the same direction: down when worries about the European debt crisis were flaring, for example, and up when the worries were receding.

“People were investing so thematically: Get me into gold miners, or get me out of financials,” says Bill Mann, chief investment officer at Motley Fool Asset Management. “But in any sector, there are good performers and bad performers.”

Stocks have begun to move more independently, as fear is no longer the primary driver for investors. Mann says that means he and other stock pickers are in a position once again to be rewarded for picking good stocks.