Does the “smart money” effect documented by Gruber (1996) and Zheng (1999) reflect fund selection ability of mutual fund investors? We examine the finding that investors are able to predict mutual fund performance and invest accordingly. We show that the smart money effect is explained by the stock return momentum phenomenon documented by Jegadeesh and Titman (1993). Further evidence suggests t...

This paper provides a set of empirical tests of the cross-sectional variation of stock volatility and investablility, where investability is defined as the degree to which a stock is accessible to foreigners. Unlike previous studies, which focus on market volatility and market return, we study the relationship between individual stock return volatility and its investablility. Our findings have ...

The SRI funds performances remain inconclusive. Hence, more studies need to be conducted to determine if SRI funds systematically underperform or outperform conventional funds. This paper has employed dynamic mean-variance model using shortage function approach to evaluate the performance of SRI and Environmentally friendly funds. Unlike the traditional methods, this approach estimate fund perf...

Using survivorship bias-free datasets to rank fund performance introduces a market climate bias that depends on the lengths of the funds’ return histories. Based on Carhart’s (1997) four-factor model, we analytically show how the market climate affects commonly used performance measures. Our empirical results confirm that this market climate bias creates different rankings depending on the meas...

We conduct an experiment to evaluate why individuals invest in high-fee index funds. In our experiments, subjects allocate $10,000 across four S&P 500 index funds and are rewarded for their portfolio's subsequent return. Subjects overwhelmingly fail to minimize fees. We can reject the hypothesis that subjects buy high-fee index funds because of bundled non-portfolio services. Search costs for f...

This paper analyzes competition between mutual funds in a multiple funds version of the model of Hugonnier and Kaniel (2010). We characterize the set of equilibria for this portfolio management game and show that there exists a unique Pareto optimal equilibrium. The main result of this paper shows that the funds cannot differentiate themselves through portfolio choice in the sense that they sho...

This paper examines the performance and diversification properties of active Australian equity fund-of-funds (FoF). Simulation analysis is employed to examine portfolio performance as a function of the number of funds in the portfolio. The paper finds that as the number of funds in a FoF portfolio increases, performance improves in a mean-variance setting, however measures of skewness and kurto...

We examine the problem of discrete stock price prediction using a synthesis of linguistic, financial and statistical techniques to create the Arizona Financial Text System (AZFinText). The research within this paper seeks to contribute to the AZFinText system by comparing AZFinText’s predictions against existing quantitative funds and human stock pricing experts. We approach this line of resear...