IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cfrwps/283003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Once a trader, always a trader: The role of traders in fund management

Author

Listed:
  • Cici, Gjergji
  • Schuster, Philipp
  • Weishaupt, Franziska

Abstract

Mutual fund families are increasingly assigning traders to manage corporate bond mutual funds. Using this setting to study the role of traders in investment management, we document that trader managers identify and exploit short-term trading opportunities at lower transaction costs. These skills are particularly valuable during periods of market stress. Moreover, trader managers exhibit sophisticated risk management behavior: They reduce credit risk during periods of market stress and take more maturity risk during periods of large interest rate fluctuations, while holding portfolios with greater convexity. The combination of these skills produces relative outperformance during periods of large interest rate fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Cici, Gjergji & Schuster, Philipp & Weishaupt, Franziska, 2024. "Once a trader, always a trader: The role of traders in fund management," CFR Working Papers 24-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:283003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/283003/1/1880416913.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blake, Christopher R & Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1993. "The Performance of Bond Mutual Funds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(3), pages 370-403, July.
    2. Chen, Hsiu-Lang & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Wermers, Russ, 2000. "The Value of Active Mutual Fund Management: An Examination of the Stockholdings and Trades of Fund Managers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 343-368, September.
    3. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2008. "Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2379-2416, November.
    4. Goldstein, Itay & Jiang, Hao & Ng, David T., 2017. "Investor flows and fragility in corporate bond funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 592-613.
    5. Cici, Gjergji & Dahm, Laura K. & Kempf, Alexander, 2018. "Trading efficiency of fund families: Impact on fund performance and investment behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    7. Lu, Yan & Ray, Sugata & Teo, Melvyn, 2016. "Limited attention, marital events and hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 607-624.
    8. Reichenbacher, Michael & Schuster, Philipp, 2022. "Size-adapted bond liquidity measures and their asset pricing implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 425-443.
    9. Bo Becker & Victoria Ivashina, 2015. "Reaching for Yield in the Bond Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(5), pages 1863-1902, October.
    10. Gjergji Cici & Monika Gehde-Trapp & Marc-André Göricke & Alexander Kempf, 2018. "The Investment Value of Fund Managers’ Experience outside the Financial Sector," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(10), pages 3821-3853.
    11. Golec, Joseph H., 1996. "The effects of mutual fund managers' characteristics on their portfolio performance, risk and fees," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 133-147.
    12. Judith Chevalier & Glenn Ellison, 1999. "Are Some Mutual Fund Managers Better Than Others? Cross‐Sectional Patterns in Behavior and Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(3), pages 875-899, June.
    13. Greenwood, Robin & Nagel, Stefan, 2009. "Inexperienced investors and bubbles," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 239-258, August.
    14. Agarwal, Vikas & Cochardt, Alexander Elmar & Orlov, Vitaly, 2022. "Birth order and fund manager's trading behavior: Role of sibling rivalry," CFR Working Papers 22-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    15. Richard B. Evans, 2010. "Mutual Fund Incubation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1581-1611, August.
    16. Amber Anand & Chotibhak Jotikasthira & Kumar Venkataraman, 2021. "Mutual Fund Trading Style and Bond Market Fragility," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(6), pages 2993-3044.
    17. Terrence Hendershott & Ananth Madhavan, 2015. "Click or Call? Auction versus Search in the Over-the-Counter Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 419-447, February.
    18. Betzer, André & Limbach, Peter & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Schürmann, Henrik, 2021. "Till death (or divorce) do us part: Early-life family disruption and investment behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    19. Jaewon Choi & Mathias Kronlund, 2018. "Reaching for Yield in Corporate Bond Mutual Funds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(5), pages 1930-1965.
    20. Jack Bao & Jun Pan & Jiang Wang, 2011. "The Illiquidity of Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 911-946, June.
    21. Oleg Chuprinin & Denis Sosyura, 2018. "Family Descent as a Signal of Managerial Quality: Evidence from Mutual Funds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(10), pages 3756-3820.
    22. Cici, Gjergji & Gibson, Scott & Qin, Nan & Zhang, Alex, 2022. "The performance of corporate bond mutual funds and the allocation of underpriced new issues," CFR Working Papers 22-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    23. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2015. "Scale and skill in active management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 23-45.
    24. Chen, Yong & Ferson, Wayne & Peters, Helen, 2010. "Measuring the timing ability and performance of bond mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 72-89, October.
    25. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J & Blake, Christopher R, 1995. "Fundamental Economic Variables, Expected Returns, and Bond Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1229-1256, September.
    26. Amber Anand & Paul Irvine & Andy Puckett & Kumar Venkataraman, 2012. "Performance of Institutional Trading Desks: An Analysis of Persistence in Trading Costs," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 557-598.
    27. Cici, Gjergji & Gibson, Scott, 2012. "The Performance of Corporate Bond Mutual Funds: Evidence Based on Security-Level Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 159-178, February.
    28. Di Maggio, Marco & Kermani, Amir & Song, Zhaogang, 2017. "The value of trading relations in turbulent times," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 266-284.
    29. Amy K. Edwards & Lawrence E. Harris & Michael S. Piwowar, 2007. "Corporate Bond Market Transaction Costs and Transparency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1421-1451, June.
    30. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Huang, Alan Guoming & Wermers, Russ & Xue, Jinming, 2023. ""Buy the rumor, sell the news": Liquidity provision by bond funds following corporate news events," CFR Working Papers 23-07, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    2. Cici, Gjergji & Zhang, Pei (Alex), 2021. "On the valuation skills of corporate bond mutual funds," CFR Working Papers 21-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    3. Cai, Fang & Han, Song & Li, Dan & Li, Yi, 2019. "Institutional herding and its price impact: Evidence from the corporate bond market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 139-167.
    4. Qin, Nan & Wang, Ying, 2021. "Does portfolio concentration affect performance? Evidence from corporate bond mutual funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    5. Moneta, Fabio, 2015. "Measuring bond mutual fund performance with portfolio characteristics," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 223-242.
    6. Chen, Jie & Lasfer, Meziane & Song, Wei & Zhou, Si, 2021. "Recession managers and mutual fund performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    7. Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2018. "Success and failure on the corporate bond fund market," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 429-443, October.
    8. Agarwal, Vikas & Cochardt, Alexander Elmar & Orlov, Vitaly, 2022. "Birth order and fund manager's trading behavior: Role of sibling rivalry," CFR Working Papers 22-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    9. Kim, Donghyun & Li, Chengcheng & Wang, Xiaoqiong, 2021. "Risk-taking and performance of government bond mutual funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Dang, Thuy Duong & Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2022. "How do corporate bond investors measure performance? Evidence from mutual fund flows," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Bai, John Jianqiu & Tang, Yuehua & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2022. "Fund manager skill in an era of globalization: Offshore concentration and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 18-40.
    12. Otero-González, Luis & Leite, Paulo & Durán-Santomil, Pablo & Domingues, Renato, 2022. "Morningstar Star ratings and the performance, risk and flows of European bond mutual funds," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 479-496.
    13. Dahm, Laura K. & Sorhage, Christoph, 2015. "Milk or wine: Mutual funds' (dis)economies of life," CFR Working Papers 15-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    14. Dasgupta, Amil & Choi, Jaewon & Oh, Ji Yeol Jimmy, 2019. "Bond Funds and Credit Risk," CEPR Discussion Papers 14134, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Markus Natter & Martin Rohleder & Dominik Schulte & Marco Wilkens, 2017. "Bond mutual funds and complex investments," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(6), pages 433-456, October.
    16. Yong Chen & Nan Qin, 2017. "The Behavior of Investor Flows in Corporate Bond Mutual Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1365-1384, May.
    17. Cici, Gjergji & Gibson, Scott, 2010. "The performance of corporate-bond mutual funds: Evidence based on security-level holdings," CFR Working Papers 10-18, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    18. James Brugler & Carole Comerton-Forde & J Spencer Martin, 2022. "Secondary Market Transparency and Corporate Bond Issuing Costs [Asset pricing and the bid–ask spread]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(1), pages 43-77.
    19. Nicola Branzoli & Raffaele Gallo & Antonio Ilari & Dario Portioli, 2023. "Financial fragilities and risk-taking of corporate bond funds in the aftermath of central bank policy interventions," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1404, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Clare, Andrew & O'Sullivan, Niall & Sherman, Meadhbh & Zhu, Sheng, 2019. "The performance of US bond mutual funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-8.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    traders; fund managers; transaction costs; corporate bonds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:cfrwps:283003. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfkoede.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.