Deposits flow out of the US banking system in January and February and flow in later in the year. In response to this outflow, banks increase rates on retail deposit products in January, including time, savings, and money market deposit accounts. Banks tend to offer highest deposit rates in...

We construct measures of mutual fund uniqueness using cluster analysis of fund returns. We find that fund uniqueness persists over time, and is higher for more actively managed funds. More unique funds charge higher fees, but they do not deliver better net-of-fee performance. Fund uniqueness...

Our evidence suggest that estimation error in the required statistics is an important factor inhibiting investors' ability to rely on mean/variance analysis. We compare the returns reported by mutual funds to the returns obtained from a mean/variance optimized portfolio of fund holdings. The...