We provide new empirical evidence suggesting that the marginal investor in mutual funds behaves differently across market conditions. If the marginal investor allocates capital across mutual funds rationally, then the relative performance of funds should be unpredictable. We find however that relative fund performance is predictable after periods of high market returns but not after periods of low market returns. The asymmetric predictability in performance we document cannot be explained by time-varying differences in transaction costs or style exposures between funds, or by sample selection. Consistent with the hypothesis that the asymmetric predictability in performance may be driven by unsophisticated investors' mistakes when allocating capital, we document that performance predictability is more pronounced for funds that cater to retail investors than for funds that cater to institutional investors.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
15038.
Length: Date of creation: Jun 2009 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15038
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Find related papers by JEL classification: G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Pension Funds; Other Private Financial Institutions
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Michael J. Cooper & Roberto C. Gutierrez & Allaudeen Hameed, 2004.
"Market States and Momentum,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1345-1365, 06.
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Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2008.
"Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds,"
Review of Financial Studies,
Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2379-2416, November.
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