We investigate the portfolio performance of retail investors who combine stocks and passive exchange traded funds (P-ETFs) by relying on both proprietary trading records and survey data. We use propensity score matching to control for all the key investor characteristics and better identify the...

This paper examines how the rise of passive investing affects active management. I develop a parsimonious model of passive and active investment in which greater passive investment accelerates investors' learning about active managers' skill. The model provides a rational explanation, namely the...

We study whether mutual fund managers gain an edge through thematic investment strategies—investing in stocks that may benefit from a particular theme. We use textual analysis of 10-K filings to identify stocks exposed to different semantic themes and measure a mutual fund’s thematic...

We examine two forward-looking mutual fund ratings: the analyst rating produced by human analysts and the quantitative rating generated by a machine learning technique. The analyst rating identifies outperforming funds, while the quantitative rating fails to do so—this difference is mostly due...

Each year, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) conducts a telephone survey of US households to track households’ ownership of mutual funds and to gather information on their demographic and financial characteristics. The most recent survey was conducted from May to June 2021 and was based...

Using novel daily holding data for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), I identify three types of ETFs that adopt distinct approaches to rebalancing their portfolios, which generates meaningful return heterogeneity. First, 56% of ETFs track public indices that pre-announce their rebalances, and they...

Mutual fund families are increasingly assigning traders to manage corporate bond mutual funds. Using this setting to study the role of traders in investment management, we document that trader managers identify and exploit short-term trading opportunities at lower transaction costs. These skills...

Using detailed mutual fund holdings in the US market, we estimate active mutual fund managers’ loss aversion as a function of both funds’ past performance and asset allocations. We document a substantial variation in loss aversion over time. We further find managers' loss aversion is higher...

Large-Scale Asset Purchases can impact the price of securities directly, when securities are targeted by the central bank, or indirectly through portfolio re-balancing of private investors. We quantify both the direct and the portfolio re-balancing impact, emphasizing the role of investor...

Using a unique database that includes publicly disclosed fund holdings at the end of the quarter as well as the holdings in all non-publicly disclosed months, we found that some funds could alter their portfolios in publicly disclosed months to artificially increase their Active Share scores and...