IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v45y2005i2p185-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Portfolio selection, diversification and fund‐of‐funds: a note

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Brands
  • David R. Gallagher

Abstract

The present paper examines the performance and diversification properties of active Australian equity fund‐of‐funds (FoF). Simulation analysis is employed to examine portfolio performance as a function of the number of funds in the portfolio. The present paper finds that as the number of funds in an FoF portfolio increases, performance improves in a mean–variance setting; however, measures of skewness and kurtosis behave less favourably given an investor's preferences for the higher moments of the return distribution. The majority of diversification benefits are realized when a portfolio of approximately 6 active equity funds are included in the FoF portfolio.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Brands & David R. Gallagher, 2005. "Portfolio selection, diversification and fund‐of‐funds: a note," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 45(2), pages 185-197, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:45:y:2005:i:2:p:185-197
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-629x.2004.00130.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2004.00130.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2004.00130.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    2. Stephen J. Brown & William N. Goetzmann & Bing Liang, 2005. "Fees On Fees In Funds Of Funds," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: H Gifford Fong (ed.), The World Of Hedge Funds Characteristics and Analysis, chapter 7, pages 141-160, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1977. "Risk Reduction and Portfolio Size: An Analytical Solution," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 415-437, October.
    4. John L. Evans & Stephen H. Archer, 1968. "Diversification And The Reduction Of Dispersion: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(5), pages 761-767, December.
    5. Statman, Meir, 1987. "How Many Stocks Make a Diversified Portfolio?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 353-363, September.
    6. R Bird & DR Gallagher, 2002. "The evaluation of active manager returns in a non-symmetrical environment," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(4), pages 303-324, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rand Kwong Yew Low, 2018. "Vine copulas: modelling systemic risk and enhancing higher‐moment portfolio optimisation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(S1), pages 423-463, November.
    2. Vitali Alexeev & Mardi Dungey, 2015. "Equity portfolio diversification with high frequency data," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(7), pages 1205-1215, July.
    3. K. Liagkouras & K. Metaxiotis, 2019. "Improving the performance of evolutionary algorithms: a new approach utilizing information from the evolutionary process and its application to the fuzzy portfolio optimization problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 272(1), pages 119-137, January.
    4. Alexeev, Vitali & Tapon, Francis, 2013. "Equity Portfolio Diversification: How Many Stocks are Enough? Evidence from Five Developed Markets," Working Papers 2013-16, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 20 Nov 2013.
    5. Humphrey, Jacquelyn E. & Benson, Karen L. & Low, Rand K.Y. & Lee, Wei-Lun, 2015. "Is diversification always optimal?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PB), pages 521-532.
    6. Zhe Chen & F. Douglas Foster & David R. Gallagher & Adrian D. Lee & Steven Cahan, 2015. "A model of emulation funds," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(3), pages 717-748, September.
    7. Michael Stein & Svetlozar T Rachev, 2011. "Style-neutral funds of funds: Diversification or deadweight?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(6), pages 417-434, February.
    8. Florin Aliu & Besnik Krasniqi & Adriana Knapkova & Fisnik Aliu, 2019. "Interdependence and Risk Comparison of Slovak, Hungarian and Polish Stock Markets: Policy and Managerial Implications," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 69(2), pages 273-287, June.
    9. Azra Zaimovic & Adna Omanovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo, 2021. "How Many Stocks Are Sufficient for Equity Portfolio Diversification? A Review of the Literature," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-30, November.
    10. K. Liagkouras & K. Metaxiotis, 2018. "A new efficiently encoded multiobjective algorithm for the solution of the cardinality constrained portfolio optimization problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 267(1), pages 281-319, August.
    11. Cui, Wei & Yao, Juan, 2020. "Funds of hedge funds: Are they really the high society for little guys?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 346-361.
    12. Vitali Alexeev & Francis Tapon, 2014. "The number of stocks in your portfolio should be larger than you think: diversification evidence from five developed markets," Published Paper Series 2014-4, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    13. Sirapat Polwitoon & Oranee Tawatnuntachai, 2013. "In Search of Optimal Number of Bond Funds," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 1-5.
    14. Pankaj Sinha & Priya Sawaliya, 2021. "Financial Constraints, Stock Returns and R&D in Indian Stock Market," Vision, , vol. 25(2), pages 192-200, June.
    15. Nuhiu Artor & Peci Bedri & Aliu Florin, 2022. "Assessing the diversification risk of a single equity market: evidence from the largest European stock indexes," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 58(1), pages 3-16, March.
    16. Vitali Alexeev & Mardi Dungey & Wenying Yao, 2016. "Continuous and Jump Betas: Implications for Portfolio Diversification," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-15, June.
    17. Hazel Bateman & Susan Thorp, 2005. "Decentralised Portfolio Management: Analysis of Australian Accumulation Funds," Research Paper Series 161, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    18. Doan, Phuong & Lin, Chien-Ting & Zurbruegg, Ralf, 2010. "Pricing assets with higher moments: Evidence from the Australian and us stock markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 51-67, February.
    19. Iwanicz-Drozdowska Małgorzata & Rogowicz Karol & Smaga Paweł, 2023. "Market-moving events and their role in portfolio optimization of generations X, Y, and Z," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 59(4), pages 371-397, December.
    20. Nadège Ribau-Peltre & Pascal Damel & An Lethi, 2018. "A methodology to avoid over-diversification of funds of equity funds An implementation case study for equity funds of funds in bull markets," Post-Print hal-03027770, HAL.
    21. Alexeev, Vitali & Tapon, Francis, 2013. "What Australian investors need to know to diversity their portfolios," Working Papers 2013-17, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 20 Nov 2013.
    22. Zhe Chen & F Douglas Foster & David R Gallagher & Adrian D Lee, 2013. "Does portfolio emulation outperform its target funds?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(2), pages 401-427, August.
    23. David R Gallagher & Peter A Gardner & Camille H Schmidt, 2015. "Style factor timing: An application to the portfolio holdings of US fund managers," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(2), pages 318-350, May.
    24. ALIU Florin & NUHIU Artor & KNAPKOVA Adriana & LUBISHTANI Ermal & TRAN Khang, 2021. "Do Cryptocurrencies Offer Diversification Benefits For Equity Portfolios?," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 16(2), pages 5-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandro Carretta & Gianluca Mattarocci, 2009. "Funds of Funds Portfolio Composition and its Impact on Performance: Evidence from the Italian Market," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Alessandro Carretta & Franco Fiordelisi & Gianluca Mattarocci (ed.), New Drivers of Performance in a Changing Financial World, chapter 5, pages 69-88, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Miffre, Joëlle & Brooks, Chris & Li, Xiafei, 2013. "Idiosyncratic volatility and the pricing of poorly-diversified portfolios," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 78-85.
    3. Prateek Sharma & Vipul, 2018. "Improving portfolio diversification: Identifying the right baskets for putting your eggs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(6), pages 698-711, September.
    4. Tasca, Paolo & Mavrodiev, Pavlin & Schweitzer, Frank, 2014. "Quantifying the impact of leveraging and diversification on systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 43-52.
    5. Gilles Boevi Koumou, 2016. "Risk reduction and Diversification within Markowitz's Mean-Variance Model: Theoretical Revisit," Papers 1608.05024, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2016.
    6. Paolo Tasca & Stefano Battiston, "undated". "Diversification and Financial Stability," Working Papers CCSS-11-001, ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design.
    7. Tienyu Hwang & Simon Gao & Heather Owen, 2012. "A two‐pass model study of the CAPM: evidence from the UK stock market," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(2), pages 89-104, June.
    8. Prateek SHARMA, 2017. "Economic value of portfolio diversification: Evidence from international multi-asset portfolios," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(613), W), pages 33-42, Winter.
    9. Chia, Rui Ming Daryl & Lim, Kai Jie Shawn, 2012. "The Attenuation of Idiosyncratic Risk under Alternative Portfolio Weighting Strategies: Recent Evidence from the UK Equity Market," MPRA Paper 41455, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Gasser, Stephan M. & Rammerstorfer, Margarethe & Weinmayer, Karl, 2017. "Markowitz revisited: Social portfolio engineering," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 1181-1190.
    11. Plantinga, Auke & Scholtens, Bert, 2016. "The financial impact of divestment from fossil fuels," Research Report 16005-EEF, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    12. Ayub, Usman & Shah, Syed Zulfiqar Ali & Abbas, Qaisar, 2015. "Robust analysis for downside risk in portfolio management for a volatile stock market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 86-96.
    13. Tasca, Paolo & Battiston, Stefano & Deghi, Andrea, 2017. "Portfolio diversification and systemic risk in interbank networks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 96-124.
    14. Cabrini, Silvina M. & Stark, Brian G. & Irwin, Scott H. & Good, Darrel L. & Martines-Filho, Joao, 2005. "Portfolios of Agricultural Market Advisory Services: How Much Diversification Is Enough?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 101-114, April.
    15. Marie Brière & Bastien Drut & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2013. "Is the Market Portfolio Efficient? A New Test of Mean-Variance Efficiency when all Assets are Risky," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 34(1), pages 7-41.
    16. Vitali Alexeev & Mardi Dungey, 2015. "Equity portfolio diversification with high frequency data," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(7), pages 1205-1215, July.
    17. Oehler, Andreas & Wanger, Hans Philipp, 2020. "Household portfolio optimization with XTFs? An empirical study using the SHS-base," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    18. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," 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 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    19. Hany A. Shawky & David M. Smith, 2005. "Optimal Number of Stock Holdings in Mutual Fund Portfolios Based on Market Performance," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 481-495, November.
    20. Fu, Yufen & Blazenko, George W., 2017. "Normative portfolio theory," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-251.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:45:y:2005:i:2:p:185-197. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.