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Behavioral Factors in Mutual Fund Flows

Author

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  • Massimo Massa
  • William Goetzmann
  • K. Rouwenhorst

Abstract

Using a sample of daily net flows to nearly 1,000 U.S. mutual funds over a year and a half period, we identify a set of systematic factors that explain a significant amount of the variation in flows. This suggests the existence of a common component to mutual fund investor behavior and indicates which asset classes may be regarded as economic substitutes by the participants in the market for mutual fund shares. We find that flows into equity funds -- both domestic and international -- are negatively correlated to flows to money market funds and precious metals funds. This suggests that investor rebalancing between cash and equity explains a significant amount of trade in mutual fund shares. The negative correlation of equities to metals suggests that this timing is not simply due to liquidity concerns, but rather to sentiment about the equity premium. We address the question of whether behavioral factors spread returns by using the mutual fund flow factors as pre-specified regressors in a Fama-MacBeth asset pricing framework. We find that the factors derived from flows

Suggested Citation

  • Massimo Massa & William Goetzmann & K. Rouwenhorst, 2000. "Behavioral Factors in Mutual Fund Flows," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm8, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jan 2001.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm8
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    File URL: http://icfpub.som.yale.edu/publications/2381
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    Cited by:

    1. Stephen Brown & William Goetzmann & Takato Hiraki & Noriyoshi Shiraishi & Masahiro Watanabe, 2002. "Investor Sentiment in Japanese and U.S. Daily Mutual Fund Flows," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm274, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Apr 2008.
    2. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Style investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 161-199, May.
    3. Qiang Bu, 2020. "Investor Sentiment and Mutual Fund Alpha," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 57-65, January.
    4. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Andrew Metrick, "undated". "Does the Internet Increase Trading? Evidence from Investor Behavior in 401(K) Plans," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 15-00, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    5. Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Metrick, Andrew, 2002. "How does the Internet affect trading? Evidence from investor behavior in 401(k) plans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 397-421, June.
    6. Luis Ferruz & Cristina Ortiz & Jose Sarto, 2009. "Decisions of domestic equity fund investors: determinants and search costs," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(16), pages 1295-1304.
    7. A. Clark, 2006. "Modeling the net flows of U.S. mutual funds with stochastic catastrophe theory," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 50(4), pages 659-669, April.
    8. Fabian Irek & Thorsten Lehnert, 2013. "Do Fund Investors Know that Risk is Sometimes not Priced?," LSF Research Working Paper Series 13-1, Luxembourg School of Finance, University of Luxembourg.
    9. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2013. "Mutual Funds," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1011-1061, Elsevier.
    10. Syriopoulos, Theodore, 2002. "Risk aversion and portfolio allocation to mutual fund classes," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 427-447.
    11. Kenneth A. Froot & Tarun Ramadorai, 2001. "The Information Content of International Portfolio Flows," NBER Working Papers 8472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Ayadi, Mohamed A. & Kryzanowski, Lawrence & Mohebshahedin, Mahmood, 2018. "Impact of sponsorship on fixed-income fund performance," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 121-137.
    13. Kim, Ho-Yong & Kwon, Okyu & Oh, Gabjin, 2016. "A causality between fund performance and stock market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 439-450.
    14. Ormos, Mihály & Timotity, Dusán, 2016. "Generalized asset pricing: Expected Downside Risk-based equilibrium modeling," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 967-980.
    15. Julie Agnew & Pierluigi Balduzzi, 2012. "The Reluctant Retirement Trader: Do Asset Returns Overcome Inertia?," NFI Working Papers 2012-WP-01, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.
    16. Froot, Kenneth A. & Tjornhom Donohue, Jessica, 2002. "The persistence of emerging market equity flows," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 338-364, December.
    17. Froot, Kenneth A. & Donohue, Jessica Tjornhom, 2004. "Decomposing the persistence of international equity flows," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 154-170, September.
    18. Takeshi Yamaguchi & Olivia Mitchell & Gary Mottola & Steven Utkus, 2007. "Winners and Losers: 401(k) Trading and Portfolio Performance," Working Papers wp154, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    19. Eric Zitzewitz, 2003. "Who Cares About Shareholders? Arbitrage-Proofing Mutual Funds," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 245-280, October.
    20. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 129-152, Spring.
    21. Fabian Irek & Thorsten Lehnert, 2013. "Do Fund Investors Know that Risk is Sometimes not Priced?," DEM Discussion Paper Series 13-1, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    22. David Ling & Andy Naranjo, 2006. "Dedicated REIT Mutual Fund Flows and REIT Performance," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 409-433, June.
    23. Gordon Gemmill & Dylan C. Thomas, 2002. "Noise Trading, Costly Arbitrage, and Asset Prices: Evidence from Closed‐end Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2571-2594, December.
    24. Takeshi Yamaguchi, 2006. "Understanding Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans," Working Papers wp125, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    25. Th. Fiotakis & N. Philippas, 2004. "Chasing trend and losing money: open end mutual fund investors' trading behaviour in Greece," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 117-121.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets

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