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This study aims to examine the role of fund family size on the money flow of Saudi Arabian open-end equity mutual funds. The author also investigates whether the relationship between fund flow and past return varies based on the fund's family size.

The study analyses 256 equity funds that operated in Saudi Arabia from 2006 until 2017. Pooled and fixed-effect regression models are used to test the relationship between mutual fund flow and family size.

The results indicate that fund flow is higher for large size family funds. The results also show that the relationship between mutual fund flow and past performance is more pronounced for large size families, which supports the concept that investors pay extra attention to funds' return and size.

The author provides evidence of the significant effect of family size of mutual funds on future money flow, which helps fund managers to understand investors' motivations for allocating their cash.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining the impact of family size level on the interaction between fund flow and past performance. This study is believed to be the first to investigate the family size factor in Saudi Arabia using a comprehensive data set.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the behavior of institutional and retail investors in S&P 500 index funds separately to determine why they behave differently.

We analyze the relationship between net flow and past index-adjusted returns or expense ratios more extensively via panel data regressions across a broad dataset.

We find that the holding of institutional investors is, indeed, sticky. The results indicate that the net flow of institutional investors is not sensitive to past index-adjusted returns of expense ratios.

Prior studies have attempted to explain the irrational behavior of investors in S&P 500 index funds. We attempt to show plausible reasons why they behave differently.

This research aims to examine hedge funds’ performance, risk and flow before and after the implementation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

This paper includes the use of different factor models to highlight the performance and risk of hedge funds before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. Hedge fund holdings are retrieved from Thomson Reuters Lipper Hedge Fund Database (TASS).

This study finds significant differences before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. The results for the entire sample period indicate that hedge funds suffered lower-alpha, standard deviation and idiosyncratic risk after the implementation of the STOCK Act.

The paper’s originality and value lie in addressing the relationship gap between the STOCK Act and hedge fund performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study the sensitivity of provident fund investors to past performance and how market conditions, changes in risk and liquidity levels influence the net flows into provident funds by using a unique sample from Israel.

The study checks the impact of different levels of fund performance on provident fund flows using three alternative proxies for performance: raw return and the risk adjusted returns based on the Sharpe ratio and the Jensen’s α. The analysis relies on the time fixed effect and fund fixed effect regression models.

Results reveal that there exists an approximately concave flow–performance relationship and performance persistence among Israeli provident funds. Israeli provident fund investors are risk averse so they overreact to bad performance both in bull and bear markets. Moreover, liquidity is an important factor to influence the flow–performance curve. The investors’ strong negative response to poor performance and relative insensitivity to outperformance show that provident fund managers are not rewarded for their risk-shifting activities as in mutual funds.

The authors explore the behavior of investor flows in non-institutional retirement savings funds specifically outside of the USA, which is a topic not properly investigated in literature. Moreover, examining inflows and outflows separately gives the authors a richer understanding of investors in pension schemes. This study also enhances the understanding of the impact of fund liquidity on the flow–performance relationship for the retirement funds segment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of mutual fund investment flows across the business cycle. To account for the differences in the flow patterns of funds catered for institutional investors and those focusing on retail investors, the author conducts this investigation separately for flows of institutional and retail funds.

The author uses the sample of US equity mutual funds for the period between 1999 and 2012. For the samples of each type of fund, the author performs separate analyses for expansion and recession periods. Following Sirri and Tufano (1998), the author implements the Fama MacBeth (1973) approach.

The author finds that flow patterns of both fund types vary across the business cycle. For example, the results reveal that during bad times, institutional investors demonstrate weaker return-chasing behavior, while paying higher attention to Jensen’s α, than during good times. In addition, the author reports results on the effect of fund exposure to various systematic risk factors. For instance, the author observes that during economic downturns, investors of both fund types tend to punish managers with higher market exposure. During expansions, the fund’s market exposure positively affects flows of institutional funds, while its effect on the flows of retail funds remains negative.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that investigates mutual fund investment flow patterns across the business cycle, while simultaneously accounting for differences in flow patterns between retail and institutional funds. A further contribution of this paper is that it explores the previously overlooked relationships between fund flows and their exposure to various systematic risk factors.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the fund flow – performance relationship for Islamic and conventional equity funds in Malaysia.

The authors use panel regression models to estimate the relationship between fund flows and performance for Islamic and conventional equity funds in Malaysia from 2001 to 2009. The data for each fund include fund flows, assets under management, management expenses, fund age, portfolio turnover, fund risk and return and the number of funds in the fund’s family. The authors also include market returns and year effects. The sample consists of 127 Malaysian equity funds with at least 65 per cent domestic equity holdings comprising 35 Islamic and 92 conventional equity funds.

Islamic fund investors respond to performance in much the same way as conventional fund investors, increasing fund flows to better performing funds and decreasing fund flows to poorer performing funds. However, there is also evidence that Islamic fund investors are relatively less responsive toward poorly performing Islamic funds, suggesting an asymmetry in the expected positive fund flow – performance relationship, but only for Islamic fund investors. When choosing funds based on other fund attributes, Islamic fund investors again exhibit similar behaviour, and like conventional fund investors direct larger percentage fund flows into smaller funds as well as funds with larger past fund flows and higher expense ratios.

The authors were only able to access data on annual net fund flows not quarterly or monthly fund inflows and outflows as usual in developed markets and this may obscure some important aspects of investor decision-making. There is also insufficient data for matched-sample techniques, which may better control for fund-specific characteristics.

Islamic funds like conventional funds will experience increased fund flows with better performance and vice versa. However, Islamic fund investors appear somewhat less likely to remove monies from poorly performing funds. The authors believe this is because investors either place a premium on the non-return attributes of Shariah-compliant funds and/or wish to avoid search costs in finding another suitable Islamic fund. Apart from this, Islamic and conventional fund investors behave in a similar manner, and the authors believe that this is possible in Malaysia given the size and diversity of its Islamic fund sector.

This paper is one of the very few empirical studies concerning the behaviour of Islamic investors, particularly in Malaysia, primarily because of limitations in data availability.

This paper aims to provide an empirical evidence on the fund flows-past return performance relationship by also considering the management expense ratio, the portfolio turnover, the fund size and the fund age of Islamic equity funds (IEF) investors in comparison with conventional equity funds (CEF) investors.

By using panel data, the sample of Malaysian domestic managed equity funds is considered which comprises 20 individual funds from IEF and CEF from 2011 to 2013.

The results provide evidence that IEF investors have different factors when choosing funds in comparison with CEF investors. The study finds that the key factor influencing the fund flows of IEF is the management expense ratio, compared to the CEF which is fund size. This study also shows that all the fund characteristics of IEF and CEF are positively or negatively related to the fund flows.

The present study may be extended by considering other fund categories such as the money market fund, the balanced fund, the bond fund and the fixed income fund.

The empirical findings of this paper clearly call for fund managers and investors to review their investment policy. The results could also provide better information and guidance for investors as well policy makers on the factors that affect the fund flow for Malaysian Islamic funds and CEF.

This paper is among the earliest empirical evidence studies on the fund flows-past return performance relationship by focusing in a comparative manner on IEF investors and CEF investors in Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to study if actively managed exchange-traded funds (AMETFs) and actively managed mutual funds (AMMFs) are complements or substitutes. It also tests if there are tax or liquidity clientele effects.

The study investigates the relation between individual AMMF flows and aggregate AMETF flows as well as individual AMETF flows and aggregate AMMF flows. A 2013 tax change is used to analyze if a tax clientele effect exists between the AMETF and AMMF markets. The authors use differences in investor groups for institutional vs retail fund share classes to test for liquidity clientele effects.

The authors find that equity and mixed AMETFs and AMMFs are substitutes, although not perfect substitutes. Taxation-related differences between the two products create a clientele effect for fixed income and mixed funds where tax-sensitive investors are more likely to substitute AMETFs for AMMFs surrounding tax increases. There is weak evidence that institutional investors may prefer AMETFs more than retail investors because of their enhanced liquidity.

This is the first study to investigate the flow relation between AMETFs and AMMFs. The fast-paced growth of the AMETF area coupled with the substitutability between the two products and tax advantages of AMETFs has the capability to gain significant market share from AMMFs in the future.

The unit trust industry is one of the fastest growing areas in the financial sector. This dramatic growth has raised concern about the level of investors’ knowledge, or lack thereof, relating to the factors associated with investment decisions. This study investigates the factors and dynamics behind cash flows into and from General Equity unit trusts from September 1996 to September 2001, and the extent to which market factors and unit trust characteristics explain the variation in cash flows. The analysis shows a significant positive relationship between cash flows and contemporaneous returns of the General Equity unit trusts and the equity market, while being negatively related to one‐month lagged returns and cash flows. Several of the determinants, including interest rates, fee structures, risk and fund size, are found to be insignificant at a 5% level. The results indicate that investors exhibit an element of profit maximisation, driven by performances and irrationality, in that they give less consideration to fee structures, risk and fund size.

An issue which has received recent attention internationally is that of cash flow statements. In Malaysia members of the accounting bodies have been invited to present their comments and views on the possibility of adopting cash flow statements in Malaysia. Historical links with the United Kingdom mean that extant UK accounting standards usually find their equivalents in Malaysia sooner rather than later. The UK standard on cash flows requires a categorisation of cash flows which is different to the IASC and every other regulatory body except that in Hong Kong. On the other hand, Singapore, which has historically mirrored extant UK regulations quite closely, has decided to adopt the IASC model for cash flows. Thus the debate about whether, and how, to move from funds flow to cash flow reporting in Malaysia is tinged with an additional degree of complexity. By setting out a brief history of the transition from funds flow to cash flow reporting in the rest of the world and providing evidence from observations on the UK standard by preparers of accounts, it is hoped to contribute to the current debate in Malaysia.