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Does herding behavior reveal skill? An analysis of mutual fund performance

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  • Jiang, Hao
  • Verardo, Michela

Abstract

We uncover a negative relation between herding behavior and skill in the mutual fund industry. Our new, dynamic measure of fund-level herding captures the tendency of fund managers to follow the trades of the institutional crowd. We find that herding funds underperform their antiherding peers by over 2% per year. Differences in skill drive this performance gap: antiherding funds make superior investment decisions even on stocks not heavily traded by institutions, and can anticipate the trades of the crowd; furthermore, the herding-antiherding performance gap is persistent, wider when skill is more valuable, and larger among managers with stronger career concerns.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Hao & Verardo, Michela, 2018. "Does herding behavior reveal skill? An analysis of mutual fund performance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 86372, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:86372
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Amil Dasgupta & Andrea Prat & Michela Verardo, 2011. "Institutional Trade Persistence and Long‐Term Equity Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 635-653, April.
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    6. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan & Wermers, Russ, 1995. "Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1088-1105, December.
    7. Verbeek, Marno & Wang, Yu, 2013. "Better than the original? The relative success of copycat funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3454-3471.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    herding; mutual funds; performance; ability; imitation; alpha;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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