How synchronized are short sellers? We examine a unique dataset on the distribution of pro fits across a stock's short sellers and find evidence of substantial dispersion in the initiation of their positions. Consistent with this dispersion reflecting "synchronization risk," i.e., uncertainty...

We document a systematic seasonal component in the aggregate underperformance of active mutual funds. At the aggregate level, active funds underperform the market and other passive benchmarks only in the first month of a quarter. This intra-quarter performance seasonality holds across fund sizes...

We show that benchmark-linked convex incentives can lead risk-averse money managers aware of mispricing to over-invest in overpriced securities. In the model, the managers' risk-seeking behavior varies in response to the interaction of mispricing with convexity and benchmarking concerns....

The internal markets of fund families can encourage member funds to deviate excessively from their investment mandates. Theoretically, we show that fund managers following sufficiently different style benchmarks can engage in risk-shifting by trading with one another at low cost inside their...

The empirical asset pricing literature documents a myriad of anomalies. Accounting for the correlated and mean-reverting nature of these anomalies, I provide an explicit solution to the optimal dynamic investment problem of a risk-averse investor who trades in an arbitrary number of potentially...

I present a dynamic investment model in which mutual funds' inferior performance is an equilibrium response to incentives rather than the consequence of low skills. In the model, a skilled (informed) manager responds to investors' flows, which are a convex function of performance relative to...

We show that short sellers are constrained by their losses. Using unique data on the mark-to-market profits of short sellers of U.S. stocks, we document an asymmetric response of short selling to gains versus losses. Short selling substantially falls following large losses but does not respond...

We study the equilibrium implications on asset prices of institutions' trading with sentiment-driven retail investors. In the model, both the benchmarking concerns of institutions and the (irrational) optimism of retail investors boost the aggregate demand for a stock. We show that the ensuing...

We show that risk-sharing considerations rationalize symmetric benchmark-adjusted ("fulcrum") fees in the compensation of informed active fund management. By tying fees symmetrically to the appropriate benchmark, investors can tilt a fund portfolio toward their optimal risk exposure and realize...