In this study, I compare the fund selection criteria used by investors in retail mutual funds with the criteria of investors in institutional mutual funds. I show several differences in investment flow patterns between retail and institutional funds, which are consistent with differences in...

We present a novel measure to declare a magnitude of the difference between fund's prospectus investment styles and the fund's actual investment styles on a long- term basis. Our measure incorporates parameter uncertainty in its measurement and through a sequence of pair-wise comparisons of the...

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 process an exhaustive set of 147 portfolio performance measures and their variations, and identify 18 relevant dimensions using a Principal Component Analysis on a sample of 1,625 international equity mutual funds. We isolate three of the seven most informative factors that uncover potential...

In this paper we show that simple buy-and-hold strategies over-perform market-timing strategies effectively used by Italian investors in equity mutual funds. We estimate returns from market-timing strategies using aggregate data on net flows for a large sample of equity mutual funds, available...

We apply methods designed to measure mutual fund skill to a cross-section of traded funds that should not exhibit managerial portfolio selection skill: index funds. Surprisingly, these tests imply index fund skill exists, is persistent, and is in similar proportion as in active funds. We use the...

We uncover a negative relation between herding behavior and skill in the mutual fund industry. Our new, dynamic measure of fund-level herding captures the tendency of fund managers to follow the trades of the institutional crowd. We find that herding funds underperform their antiherding peers by...

This paper analyses the impact of more frequent portfolio disclosure on mutual funds' performance. Since 2004, SEC requires all U.S. mutual funds to disclose their portfolio holdings on a quarterly basis from semi-annual previously. This change in regulation provides a natural setting to study...

We reconsider the question of whether beta-centric hedge fund activity is predictive of superior performance. We construct a measure of overall beta activity of fund managers, Beta Activity, and find evidence that top beta active managers deliver superior long term out-of-sample performance...

In this paper we examine the impact of UCITS IV Directive on the performance of European mutual funds. In a sample of 1435 Equity funds from December 2001 to December 2013, we empirically investigate the effects of economies of scale on the relation between size and performance. Using Chen et...