A version of this article appeared in the April 2017 issue of Morningstar ETFInvestor. Download a complimentary copy of ETFInvestor here.

The rapid expansion of computing power and the growth of the Internet have flattened the world in innumerable ways. Investors now have access to more information and more powerful tools than ever. Calculations that were once performed through hours of toil over physical spreadsheets and slide rules can now be executed in milliseconds via a web-based implement.