We investigate the value of active mutual fund management by examining the stockholdings and trades of mutual funds. We find that stocks widely held by funds do not outperform other stocks. However, stocks purchased by funds have significantly higher returns than stocks they sell-this is true...

We provide an exploratory investigation of mutual funds' investment styles. Funds' styles tend to cluster around a broad market benchmark. When funds deviate from the benchmark they are more likely to favor growth stocks with good past performance. There is some consistency in styles, although...

This study presents new evidence that industry-wide earnings surprises indeed diffuse gradually across the supply chain at both industry and individual-firm levels. This evidence provides fundamental support for studies in the literature of gradual information diffusion, commonly using lagged...

We investigate mutual funds' decision to shut out new investors. We first document that only those closed funds that do not subsequently launch new funds can continuously deliver significantly positive objective- and size-adjusted returns up to six months after the closure. This suggests the...

Valuation risk of a security—uncertainty about its fair value—is a subject of considerable concern in the mutual fund industry. If funds report different values for identical securities, investors cannot easily compare performance. Yet it is not unusual to see identical illiquid stocks,...

Return-based classification identifies a portfolio's style signature in the time series of its returns. Detection is based on a regression of portfolio returns on returns of factor mimicking indices. The method is easy to apply and does not require information about portfolio composition....