Performance Anomalies and Determinants of Equity Funds: Evidence from Türkiye

This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining whether the returns of equity funds represent a new source of anomaly within the framework of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. Equity funds traded under the equity umbrella on the Turkish Electronic Fund Trading Platform have been among the highest-performing funds over the past five years. The analysis was conducted using data from 48 equity funds over the period from February 4, 2019 to January 31, 2024. In this study, the situation where equity funds outperform the BIST 100 index is defined as an "anomaly". The dependent variable is the anomaly status, while the independent variables include the number of investors in the fund, the fund’s duration of activity, fund risk, total fund value, expense ratio, and the number of shares in circulation. The findings suggest that equity funds with a higher number of investors tend to have a lower likelihood of outperforming the market. Conversely, longer activity duration, larger total fund value, and higher expense ratios are positively associated with the likelihood of exceeding market returns. However, these results should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects due to the observational nature of the study.