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The (Bad?) Timing of Mutual Fund Investors

Author

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  • Kandel, Shmuel
  • Wohl, Avi
  • Braverman, Oded
Abstract
This paper provides a new look at the timing of mutual fund investors. We re-examine the relationship between investors' aggregate net flows into and out of the funds and the returns of the funds in subsequent periods. The negative relationship that we find (using monthly data of aggregate US equity mutual funds in the years 1984-2003 and a statistical test based on bootstrapping of returns) causes mutual fund investors, as a group, to realize a lower long-term accumulated return than the long-term accumulated return on a 'buy and hold' position in these funds. The 'bad' performance of mutual fund investors can be explained either by 'behavioural explanations' such as investor sentiment or by 'rational market explanations' that are based on time-varying risk premiums. We present a simple overlapping-generation model which predicts a negative relationship between flows and subsequent returns. It is assumed that flows into and out of funds are not related to information about future cash flows (dividends), but are caused by changes in other factors affecting the demand for stocks. Hence, a positive (negative) net flow in a given month implies a positive (negative) price change in the same month, but also lower (higher) expected future returns. We show that in each month the change in the expected future returns may be small (relative to the return variance), but the accumulated effect of these changes may be significant. This result may explain why previous studies, using monthly data of flows and returns in either simple regression models or VAR, could not have significantly detected the monthly change in the expected future returns even in a 15-year sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Kandel, Shmuel & Wohl, Avi & Braverman, Oded, 2005. "The (Bad?) Timing of Mutual Fund Investors," CEPR Discussion Papers 5243, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5243
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ciccotello, Conrad & Greene, Jason & Ling, Leng & Rakowski, David, 2011. "Capacity and factor timing effects in active portfoliomanagement," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 277-300, May.
    2. Friesen, Geoffrey C. & Sapp, Travis R.A., 2007. "Mutual fund flows and investor returns: An empirical examination of fund investor timing ability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2796-2816, September.
    3. Jaebeom Kim & Jung-Min Kim, 2020. "Stock returns and mutual fund flows in the korean financial markets: a system approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(33), pages 3588-3599, June.
    4. Alexakis, Christos & Dasilas, Apostolos & Grose, Chris, 2013. "Asymmetric dynamic relations between stock prices and mutual fund units in Japan. An application of hidden cointegration technique," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Sviatoslav Rosov & F Douglas Foster, 2014. "Customer foreign exchange orders: When timing really does matter," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(3), pages 351-368, August.
    6. Cha, Heung-Joo & Kim, Jaebeom, 2010. "Stock returns and investment trust flows in the Japanese financial market: A system approach," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 327-332, August.
    7. 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.
    8. Szabolcs Szikszai & Tamas Badics, 2014. "Enhanced Funds Seeking Higher Returns," Working papers wpaper43, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual funds; Market timing; Time-varying expected returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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