Wall Street traders play for higher stakes than Monopoly rivals collecting plastic houses and fake money. But finance professor Albert “Pete” Kyle, author of landmark research on market microstructure, sees both activities as examples of games. As a child growing up in Memphis, Tenn., Kyle enjoyed strategy games like checkers, chess, poker and bridge — especially when winning required a degree of speculation. He also enjoyed market simulations like Monopoly.

Standing in front of the closet figuring out what to wear in the morning doesn't get any easier just because it's summer. If anything, it's harder.

The race between active and passive investment management is becoming really interesting. After years of growth among passive funds, experts are starting to ask: What's at risk?