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Prior research has documented inconclusive and/or mixed empirical evidence on the timing performance of hybrid funds. Their performance inferences generally do not efficiently control for fixed-income exposure, conditioning information, and cross-correlations in fund returns. This study examines the stock and bond timing performances of hybrid funds while controlling and accounting for these important issues. It also discusses the inferential implications of using alternative bootstrap resampling approaches.

We examine the stock and bond timing performances of hybrid funds using (un)conditional multi-factor benchmark models with robust estimation inferences. We also rely on the block bootstrap method to account for cross-correlations in fund returns and to separate the effects of luck or sampling variation from manager skill.

We find that the timing performance of portfolios of funds is neutral and sensitive to controlling for fixed-income exposures and choice of the timing measurement model. The block-bootstrap analyses of funds in the tails of the distributions of stock timing performances suggest that sampling variation explains the underperformance of extreme left tail funds and confirms the good and bad luck in the bond timing management of tail funds. We report inference changes based on whether the Kosowski et al. or the Fama and French bootstrap approach is used.

This study provides extensive and robust evidence on the stock and bond timing performances of hybrid funds and their sensitivity based on (un)conditional linear multi-factor benchmark models. It examines the timing performances in the extreme tails funds using the block bootstrap method to efficiently identify (un)skilled fund managers. It also highlights the sensitivity of inferences to the choice of testing methodology.

This study aims to determine whether the stock holdings of equity mutual funds are informative for predicting future stock performance in the Chinese market. It is a puzzle that actively managed mutual funds underperform passive benchmarks, whereas retail investors still delegate investment decisions to the fund managers. The present study sheds light on whether mutual fund managers possess security selection skills in their top ten holdings.

By regression analysis and portfolio sorting, this study focuses on 830 Chinese A-share stocks in the industry research reports from the Guotai Junan Securities Company. It collects mutual fund's top ten holdings data from the Wind Financial Terminal between 2019Q1 and 2021Q1. As robustness checks, the result holds for the fixed-effect model, an additional measure of ranks in the top ten holdings, the predictability test based on the confusion matrix and two stage least square (2SLS) regression.

The authors find that the top ten holdings by equity mutual funds are informative for predicting stock performance and can provide valuable information for investors to support their decision-making.

The findings of this study provide insightful guidance for retail investors in making investment decisions and support the hypothesis that active fund management adds value.

Firstly, the authors find that the top ten holdings of Chinese mutual funds show significantly positive signals for future stock excess returns, indicating the selection skills of fund managers. Secondly, the above positive relationship exhibits a diminishing marginal effect with more funds holding this stock. Thirdly, the authors find that the predictability horizon of the number of overweighing funds is up to three quarters and then diminishes in the fourth quarter. Finally, investors have a 59% prediction accuracy for the whole stock sample and an 85% precision conditional on the predicted positive subsample to outperform the market. The authors also address the endogeneity and reverse causality issues.

The purpose of this paper is to contrast three investment choices within the reach of individual investors: naive portfolios of Brazilian stocks; actively managed stock funds; and the Ibovespa index, which represents passive management as well as to offer insights on the performance of professional asset managers in this large emerging market.

Equally weighted portfolios contained between 5 and 30 stocks to keep transaction costs low. Stock selection used the Ibovespa constituents and considered value (dividend yield (DY) and price-to-book ratio), momentum (past returns), and liquidity, as well as the Sharpe ratio (SR) over the 2003-2012 period, rebalancing three times a year.

Cumulative returns of naive portfolios are large. They frequently outperform the index for all values of n. They also outperform stock funds, particularly when the invested amount exceeds US$25,000, due to transaction costs. Yet, expected out-of-sample SRs corrected for errors in estimates are very low, suggesting that one should not count on this historical performance in the future. Naive portfolios may simply be more exposed to additional value, size, and momentum risks. Results are sensitive to time period selection.

Naive portfolios may be attractive to individual investors in Brazil relative to stock funds, which seem to strive to keep volatility low and may be better when the investment amount is low. There may be merit for value or momentum stock selection strategies when forming small equally weighted portfolios.

The paper contrasts realistic stock investing alternatives for individuals, it provides a view of stock fund performance in Brazil, and offers practical implications that may be pertinent in other emerging stock markets.

Contrastar três opções de investimento ao alcance de investidores individuais: carteiras ingênuas de ações brasileiras; fundos de ações de gestão ativa; e o índice Ibovespa, que representa a gestão passiva. Oferecer informações sobre o desempenho de gestores de ativos profissionais neste grande mercado emergente.

As carteiras igualmente ponderadas continham entre 5 e 30 ações para manter os custos de transação baixos. A seleção de ações utilizou os componentes do Ibovespa e considerou o valor (rendimento de dividendos e relação preço/valor patrimonial), momentum (retornos passados) e liquidez, bem como o Índice de Sharpe no período 2003-2012, rebalanceando três vezes ao ano.

Os retornos acumulados de carteiras ingênuas são grandes. Eles frequentemente superam o índice para todos os valores de N. Eles também superam os fundos de ações, particularmente quando o montante investido excede US$ 25,000, devido aos custos de transação. Contudo, os Índices de Sharpe esperados fora de amostra corrigidos por erros nas estimativas são muito baixos, sugerindo que não se deve contar com este desempenho histórico no futuro. As carteiras ingênuas podem simplesmente estar mais expostas a fatores riscos adicionais, tal como os de valor, tamanho e momentum. Os resultados são sensíveis à seleção do período de tempo.

As carteiras ingênuas podem ser atrativas para os investidores individuais no Brasil em relação aos fundos de ações, que parecem se esforçar para manter a volatilidade baixa e podem ser melhores quando o valor do investimento é baixo. Pode haver mérito para estratégias de seleção de ações de valor ou momentum ao formar carteiras igualmente ponderadas pequenas.

O artigo contrasta alternativas realistas de investimento em ações para indivíduos, oferece uma visão do desempenho dos fundos de ações no Brasil e oferece implicações práticas que podem ser pertinentes em outros mercados emergentes.

Mutual funds are the second most preferred investment option in India and have garnered considerable research interest. The focus of Indian studies thus far has been restricted to the bottom-up approach of investing which rewards a fund manager for picking winner stocks and generates superior returns. While changing portfolio allocation as per varying macro-trends has been instrumental in generating superior returns, it has not been given the desired attention. This study addresses this important research gap.

The authors analyze the industry selection ability of the fund manager on a robust sample by decomposing alpha into alpha due to industry selection and alpha attributable to stock selection. Alpha estimates are computed on a robust sample of 34 open-ended Indian equity mutual funds for a 10-year duration 2011–2020 using three base models of asset pricing – single-factor, four-factor and five-factor alpha under panel data methodology.

The study leads us to four major findings. One, industry selection explains more than two-fifth of the alpha both in cross-section and time series of returns; two, industry selection exhibits persistence for more than four quarters across asset pricing model; third, younger funds have level playing when alpha from picking right industries is concerned; four, broad industry allocation continues to explain superior returns as sector allocation undergoes consolidation during ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and funds increase exposure to defensive stocks, consistent with folio allocations as per macroeconomic conditions.

The authors find strong evidence of persistence in the case of alpha attributable to the industry selection component, and the findings are consistent with the persistence results reported in the empirical literature. While some funds excel in stock-picking skills and others excel in picking the right industries, both skills together make for winner funds that attract larger investor flows as investors chase superior performance. The authors also find no evidence of diseconomies of scale in the case of industry allocation alpha generated by the fund managers.

The results suggest a fresh approach for investors while making mutual fund investment decisions; the investors can achieve superior returns by assessing industry selection skills as it tends to provide a more holistic picture concerning a perennial question – why some funds outperform and continue to contribute to investor's wealth?

Mutual funds have become a favored investment option for Indian investors more so as a disciplined investment option owing to dismal financial literacy rates. The study throws light on a relatively unaddressed dimension of choosing winner funds. The significance of right sector allocation assumed even more significance with the onset of the pandemic which lends further credence to the findings of the study.

Research has been conducted on secondary data extracted from a well-cited database for Indian mutual funds. Empirical analysis and conclusion drawn are based on authentic statistical analysis and adds to the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risk-adjusted performance of Brazilian SRI stock funds.

Risk-adjusted performance of 11 Brazilian socially responsible investment (SRI) funds relative to local index funds and matched pairs of funds.

SRI funds performed as well as portfolios representing the broad market on a risk-adjusted basis, both before and during the global financial crisis. Independent investment houses are not interested in SRI funds. Large financial conglomerates may see these funds as part of their corporate social responsibility image strategy.

Brazilian SRI funds are a very small niche in the stock mutual fund universe of the country, thus, the small sample (universe) of SRI funds, as far as the author's knew. One cannot say that independent asset managers do not include SRI screening in their stock selection criteria. The use of SRI screening by the most prominent independent asset managers is a potential topic for future research.

Brazilian SRI funds did not represent an extra screening filter cost to their investors. The majority of asset managers do not consider this strategy important enough to deserve an exclusive vehicle.

As SRI funds did not posit an extra screening cost, they may deserve a greater share of the mutual fund market, stimulating more SRI.

The performance of Brazilian SRI stock funds had not been examined in the international literature. Brazil has vast natural resources, a very large economy and the fourth largest mutual fund industry in the world, but was overlooked.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the classification of the equity mutual fund depends on the performance measure used.

The sample for this study includes stock mutual funds for the USA, Europe and emerging market economies covering the period 2010 to 2020. Using more than 20 performance measures the results are compared using the Sharpe ratio as the reference.

The results show that performance measures based on absolute reward–risk ratios like Sortino, Treynor, etc. have similar rankings, because in general the numerator (mean excess return) is the same. However, when the authors employ other types of performance measures, results may be significantly different, especially in the case of metrics for “incremental returns”, i.e. alphas. Focussing on markets, their results show that choosing performance measures is more relevant for emerging markets.

The sample is only limited to the USA, Europe and the emerging market, and there are other performance metrics in the literature which have not been covered in this work.

The ordering of equity mutual funds depends on the measure used, specially if investors employ factor models to measure excess returns (alphas). Hence, policy formulation on disclosure of mutual fund performance should encourage the use of several metrics from different families. Investors must be aware of the different rankings made and the most appropriate metrics based on their preferences.

This paper focusses specifically on the effect that performance metrics have on relative fund performance. Previous studies have ignored alpha metrics to rank funds, which are commonly employed by investors. The authors’ study performs an analysis for three different markets considering the two main developed ones (the American and European equity markets), as well as the emerging one, largely ignored until now.

This study investigates the performance distribution of passive funds in the Korean market and compares it with the performance distribution of active funds. The key findings are as follows, first, the performance distribution of passive funds has a thicker tail compared to that of active funds. There are passive funds that achieve outstanding performance, and both the false discovery rate (FDR) analysis and simulation analysis suggest that their outperformance is driven by managerial skill rather than luck. Second, passive fund performance is more persistent compared to active fund performance. Third, investors are less responsive to passive fund performance compared to active fund performance. The fund flow-performance relationship is significantly positive for active funds but not for passive funds. This implies that investors may not recognize the managerial skills of passive funds.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if hedge funds perform poorly as claimed by more recent research. The authors find hedge funds perform well from 2001 to 2013 when compared to sample of firms known to experience superior performance, namely, a sample of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs).

This paper uses a portfolio approach in comparing the performance of hedge funds and SEO firms. Other comparisons involve a number of common methodologies used to compute and analyze short-run and long-run returns.

Contrary to a growing and prevalent belief, the paper offers evidence hedge funds as a whole have performed well for a recent 13-year period. This finding includes periods up to six years around SEO announcement months.

This paper is limited to examining monthly returns for a portfolio of hedge funds. This limitation led to incorporating a portfolio approach.

The findings suggest that a portfolio of hedge funds are an important investment consideration. This consideration has practical implications because investing in a portfolio of hedge funds has become more available for all investors in recent years.

Society can be enhanced as this paper helps future investors make optimal investment decisions.

This paper adds to the hedge fund research by being the first paper to compare the performance of hedge funds with that for firms undergoing an important corporate event. The findings are new and can impact investment decision making.

This study investigates the relation between ESG-driven investment strategies and the performance of infrastructure funds. More specifically, this study examines the impact of the different dimensions – environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) – of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds on their performance.

To study the risk-return properties of infrastructure funds and the relationship with their ESG profiles, an econometric analysis is conducted, based on a sample of 180 listed, ESG-oriented infrastructure funds identified through Refinitiv Eikon.

The results show that infrastructure funds with more solid environmental investment policies experience a lower performance, while those with a stronger social orientation yield a superior performance. Governance-related investment policies seem trivial in determining the performance of these funds. Further analysis shows that ESG controversies have a negative impact on infrastructure funds' performance, whereas Emissions and Resource Use scores, both proxying for different elements under the environmental pillar, have opposite signs. Finally, the Community score has a positive impact on funds' performance consistent with the positive impact of the social pillar score. The study also provides a number of sub-sample analyses to shed light on the conditions under which each pillar has significant impact on funds’ performance.

First, infrastructure funds should choose the composition of their portfolio holdings in a way that the total return is not penalized by the prevalence of the tricky E aspects (compliance with environmental regulations) over the main benefits of the S dimension. Second, fund managers need to bet on infrastructures with an expected impact on the social pillar dimension such as those aimed at promoting the wealth of the local communities (e.g. hospitals, schools). Third, to strengthen the fund's social dimension, fund managers must increase the dollar amount of the assets under management to count on a higher firepower.

This study makes three contributions to literature. First, the ESG profiles of the infrastructure funds operating both at local and global level and their relationship with annual performance are studied. Second, the different dimensions of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds are investigated by measuring their impact on performance. Third, the study sheds light on some detailed but relevant aspects of this phenomenon by analyzing the breakdown of the ESG profile of infrastructure funds into four sustainability sub-scores capturing their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, the use of polluting materials and to influence local communities as well their exposure to the risk of litigation due to the occurrence of ESG controversies. This study addresses the extent to which the adoption of ESG investment policies by the infrastructure funds have an impact on their performances.