This paper introduces two measures to investigate potential window-dressing behavior among mutual fund managers. We show that unskilled managers that perform poorly are more likely to window dress by strategically purchasing winner stocks and selling loser stocks near quarter ends. Further,...

We provide a rationale for window dressing where investors respond to conflicting signals of managerial ability inferred from a fund's performance and disclosed portfolio holdings. We contend that window dressers take a risky bet on their performance during a reporting delay period, which...

We provide a rationale for window dressing where investors respond to conflicting signals of managerial ability inferred from a fund's performance and its disclosed portfolio holdings. We contend that window dressers take a risky bet on their performance during a reporting delay period, which...

We study the dynamics of fund manager ownership for a sample of U.S. equity mutual funds from 2005 to 2011. We find that ownership changes positively predict changes in future risk-adjusted fund performance. A one-standarddeviation increase in ownership predicts a 1.6 percent increase in alpha...

We provide a rationale for window dressing where investors respond to conflicting signals of managerial ability inferred from a fund's performance and disclosed portfolio holdings. We contend that window dressers take a risky bet on their performance during a reporting delay period, which...

We introduce a conditional measure of skill, the correlation between a funds' residual trades, net of common trading motives, and future news about the stocks traded. Using this measure, we show that the average mutual fund manager in the cross-section has stock-picking skill. This result is...

We propose that investor beliefs frequently “cross” in the sense that an investor may like company A, but dislike company B, while another investor may like company B, but dislike company A. Belief-crossing makes it almost impossible to construct a portfolio that is comprised solely of every...

We develop a continuous-time Bayesian learning model to evaluate the composite skill of a mutual fund manager and a fund family. Our model estimates the composite skill of each fund as a function of its own performance and family performance. We show two competing effects of the family...

We conduct a volatility decomposition to identify the source of performance differences between low volatility and high volatility mutual funds. A higher level of return covariance of fund holdings is associated with more fund-level exposure to the idiosyncratic volatility effect. Average...

The literature provides broad evidence for the seasonality of stock market returns, but is very scarce regarding the potential seasonality of investment funds performance. Using a sample of 5349 Equity Europe or Equity Eurozone investment funds, this article contributes to fill this gap by...