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...

We analyze empirical data for 4,000 real-life trading portfolios (U.S. equities) with holding periods of about 0.7-19 trading days. We find a simple scaling C ~ 1 / T, where C is cents-per-share, and T is the portfolio turnover. Thus, the portfolio return R has no statistically significant...

Apparently “there is no substitute for experience”. This and similar phrases are often heard in the worlds of politics, business, sport and others. It is the sort of proposition that makes sense to people. However, while the performance of actively managed funds has attracted a great deal of...