The average alpha of mutual funds is an indication of whether it pays off to invest in actively managed funds. In this study we show that a substantial part of the variation in the average alpha can be explained by exogenous factors. The most important factors are the average expense ratio, the...

Persistence in mutual fund performance is usually measured by the risk-adjusted returns of the portfolio that is long the top and short the bottom past year return deciles. A key challenge is to properly adjust for the time-varying risk exposures of this portfolio. We show that the Fama and...

We examine how active share—the extent to which a portfolio's holdings differ from its benchmark's holdings—affects the performance, risk management, and flows of bond mutual funds. Measuring active share at both the issue and issuer level, the average bond fund has an issue-level...

Which trading strategies differentiate skilled mutual fund managers from their unsuccessful peers? This study provides evidence for a positive association between holdings' implied cost of capital (ICC) and future fund performance. Consistent with large transaction costs of ICC-based investments...

We study the out-of-sample predictability of the returns of pan-European harmonized mutual funds that apply hedge fund-like investment strategies (“Alternative UCITS”). Given these funds' higher liquidity, investors could exploit relevant information much easier than for hedge funds, and use...

This paper introduces a new measure of liquidity for equity mutual funds. Our measure, called dynamic liquidity, is a combination of a fund's money flow and its volatility around money flow. We show that a fund's dynamic liquidity score (DLS) is an improved indicator of fund liquidity and can be...

This paper compares the performance of sector ETFs to their respective S&P industry GICS sector index and to their identified benchmark. We have defined sector risk exposure as the sector specific risk that cannot be eliminated via the portfolio's diversification across the given sector. We...

In this paper we examine the differences in aggregate ownership of stocks held by passive equity funds and active equity funds and in the characteristics of stocks held by these funds. We find that holdings of passive funds do not mirror the holdings of active funds. There are systematic...

We study the extent of cross-asset learning in financial markets by examining spillover effects around mutual fund fire sales. We find that the well-documented impact-reversal pattern for the returns of fire sale stocks (e.g., Coval and Stafford, 2007) spills over onto the stock returns of...

We find that mutual funds holding a larger concentration of high gross profitability stocks generate better future performance. The outperformance of these funds is not driven by a profitability-related risk premium and is not a byproduct of fund managers' exploitation of other well-known...