Using a novel measure of stock-level trade imitation, we uncover "smart" copycats: fund managers that use their own information when beneficial, and otherwise imitate other managers' better trades. Contrary to previous research, we find that these partial imitation strategies lead to...

Reference-day risk has been previously identified as a type of sampling variation phenomenon, and its effect on the estimation of stock returns and their volatility and market betas have been documented. Using a dataset of daily equity mutual fund returns, we extend previous studies to analyze...

We introduce a novel methodology to identify copycat behavior in mutual funds. We find that imitation is pervasive in the mutual fund industry. While most copycats underperform, a small number are 'smart imitators'. We find that funds at the high and low ends of the Copycat Score range...