IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v144y2022ics0378426622002035.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mutual fund flows and seasonalities in stock returns

Author

Listed:
  • Wagner, Moritz
  • Lee, John Byong-Tek
  • Margaritis, Dimitris

Abstract

We propose a flow-based explanation for two long-standing anomalies in empirical finance – Sell in May and the January effect. We find that mutual fund flows exhibit similar seasonal patterns as stock returns. After controlling for fund flows both calendar effects become insignificant. We provide new evidence on what drives this correlation. We show that return seasonality is due to unanticipated fund flow driven by uninformed (flow-motivated) retail investor trading. Active funds indicate flow-induced price pressure with a corresponding reversal of the effect, while passive funds suggest feedback trading instead. These seasonalities are remarkably pervasive, exhibiting little variation across different types of stocks, and are equally strong in periods of either high or low sentiment.

Suggested Citation

  • Wagner, Moritz & Lee, John Byong-Tek & Margaritis, Dimitris, 2022. "Mutual fund flows and seasonalities in stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:144:y:2022:i:c:s0378426622002035
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426622002035
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106623?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tinic, Seha M. & West, Richard R., 1984. "Risk and return : Janaury vs. the rest of the year," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 561-574, December.
    2. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    3. Cao, Melanie & Wei, Jason, 2005. "Stock market returns: A note on temperature anomaly," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1559-1573, June.
    4. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1645-1680, August.
    5. Galla Salganik-Shoshan, 2016. "Investment flows: Retail versus institutional mutual funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(1), pages 34-44, January.
    6. Kramer, Charles, 1994. "Macroeconomic Seasonality and the January Effect," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1883-1891, December.
    7. Lakonishok, Josef, et al, 1991. "Window Dressing by Pension Fund Managers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 227-231, May.
    8. Hodrick, Robert J, 1992. "Dividend Yields and Expected Stock Returns: Alternative Procedures for Inference and Measurement," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(3), pages 357-386.
    9. Matti Keloharju & Juhani T. Linnainmaa & Peter Nyberg, 2019. "Long-Term Discount Rates Do Not Vary Across Firms," NBER Working Papers 25579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Reinganum, Marc R., 1983. "The anomalous stock market behavior of small firms in January : Empirical tests for tax-loss selling effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 89-104, June.
    11. Robert J. Shiller, 1984. "Stock Prices and Social Dynamics," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 15(2), pages 457-510.
    12. Jank, Stephan, 2012. "Mutual fund flows, expected returns, and the real economy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3060-3070.
    13. Frazzini, Andrea & Lamont, Owen A., 2008. "Dumb money: Mutual fund flows and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 299-322, May.
    14. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1989. "Business conditions and expected returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 23-49, November.
    15. Lettau, Martin & Ludvigson, Sydney C., 2005. "Expected returns and expected dividend growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 583-626, June.
    16. Campbell, John Y, 1991. "A Variance Decomposition for Stock Returns," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(405), pages 157-179, March.
    17. Honghui Chen & Vijay Singal, 2004. "All Things Considered, Taxes Drive The January Effect," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 27(3), pages 351-372, September.
    18. Schwert, G. William, 2003. "Anomalies and market efficiency," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 939-974, Elsevier.
    19. Dyl, Edward A, 1977. "Capital Gains Taxation and Year-End Stock Market Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(1), pages 165-175, March.
    20. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    21. Jacobsen, Ben & Marquering, Wessel, 2008. "Is it the weather?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 526-540, April.
    22. Ben Jacobsen & Nuttawat Visaltanachoti, 2009. "The Halloween Effect in U.S. Sectors," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 437-459, August.
    23. Heston, Steven L. & Sadka, Ronnie, 2008. "Seasonality in the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 418-445, February.
    24. Chang, Eric C & Pinegar, J Michael, 1988. " A Fundamental Study of the Seasonal Risk-Return Relationship: A Note," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1035-1039, September.
    25. Rakowski, David & Wang, Xiaoxin, 2009. "The dynamics of short-term mutual fund flows and returns: A time-series and cross-sectional investigation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2102-2109, November.
    26. Rozeff, Michael S. & Kinney, William Jr., 1976. "Capital market seasonality: The case of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 379-402, October.
    27. Jacobsen, Ben & Marquering, Wessel, 2009. "Is it the weather? Response," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 583-587, March.
    28. John Y. Campbell, Robert J. Shiller, 1988. "The Dividend-Price Ratio and Expectations of Future Dividends and Discount Factors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(3), pages 195-228.
    29. Ferson, Wayne E & Harvey, Campbell R, 1991. "The Variation of Economic Risk Premiums," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 385-415, April.
    30. Matti Keloharju & Juhani T. Linnainmaa & Peter Nyberg, 2016. "Return Seasonalities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1557-1590, August.
    31. James, Christopher & Karceski, Jason, 2006. "Investor monitoring and differences in mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2787-2808, October.
    32. Kamstra, Mark J. & Kramer, Lisa A. & Levi, Maurice D. & Wermers, Russ, 2017. "Seasonal Asset Allocation: Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 71-109, February.
    33. James M. Poterba & Scott J. Weisbenner, 2001. "Capital Gains Tax Rules, Tax‐loss Trading, and Turn‐of‐the‐year Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 353-368, February.
    34. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 129-152, Spring.
    35. Edelen, Roger M. & Warner, Jerold B., 2001. "Aggregate price effects of institutional trading: a study of mutual fund flow and market returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 195-220, February.
    36. Campbell, John Y., 1987. "Stock returns and the term structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 373-399, June.
    37. Sun, Qian & Tong, Wilson H.S., 2010. "Risk and the January effect," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 965-974, May.
    38. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-438, July.
    39. Zhang, Cherry Y. & Jacobsen, Ben, 2021. "The Halloween indicator, “Sell in May and Go Away”: Everywhere and all the time," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    40. Franklin Fant, L., 1999. "Investment behavior of mutual fund shareholders: The evidence from aggregate fund flows," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 391-402, November.
    41. Coval, Joshua & Stafford, Erik, 2007. "Asset fire sales (and purchases) in equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 479-512, November.
    42. repec:oup:rfinst:v:25:y::i:12:p:3457-3489 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Ariel Levy & Offer Lieberman, 2016. "Active Flows and Passive Returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(1), pages 373-401.
    44. Jones, Steven L & Lee, Winson & Apenbrink, Rudolf, 1991. "New Evidence on the January Effect before Personal Income Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1909-1924, December.
    45. Hong, Harrison & Yu, Jialin, 2009. "Gone fishin': Seasonality in trading activity and asset prices," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 672-702, November.
    46. Chan, Louis K. C. & Lakonishok, Josef, 1993. "Institutional trades and intraday stock price behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 173-199, April.
    47. Kamstra, Mark J. & Kramer, Lisa A. & Levi, Maurice D., 2009. "Is it the weather? Comment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 578-582, March.
    48. Chan, Louis K C & Lakonishok, Josef, 1995. "The Behavior of Stock Prices around Institutional Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1147-1174, September.
    49. Chang, Eric C. & Pinegar, J. Michael, 1989. "Seasonal Fluctuations in Industrial Production and Stock Market Seasonals," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 59-74, March.
    50. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    51. Keloharju, Matti & Linnainmaa, Juhani T. & Nyberg, Peter, 2021. "Are return seasonalities due to risk or mispricing?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 138-161.
    52. Guercio, Diane Del & Tkac, Paula A., 2002. "The Determinants of the Flow of Funds of Managed Portfolios: Mutual Funds vs. Pension Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 523-557, December.
    53. Sven Bouman & Ben Jacobsen, 2002. "The Halloween Indicator, "Sell in May and Go Away": Another Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1618-1635, December.
    54. Dong Lou, 2012. "A Flow-Based Explanation for Return Predictability," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3457-3489.
    55. Chang, Eric C. & Pinegar, J. Michael, 1990. "Stock Market Seasonals and Prespecified Multifactor Pricing Relations," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 517-533, December.
    56. Warther, Vincent A., 1995. "Aggregate mutual fund flows and security returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 209-235.
    57. Sidney B. Wachtel, 1942. "Certain Observations on Seasonal Movements in Stock Prices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15, pages 184-184.
    58. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2.
    59. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1988. "Dividend yields and expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-25, October.
    60. Keim, Donald B., 1983. "Size-related anomalies and stock return seasonality : Further empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 13-32, June.
    61. Branch, Ben, 1977. "A Tax Loss Trading Rule," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(2), pages 198-207, April.
    62. Cherry Y. Zhang & Ben Jacobsen, 2013. "Are Monthly Seasonals Real? A Three Century Perspective," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(5), pages 1743-1785.
    63. Massa, Massimo & Yadav, Vijay, 2015. "Investor Sentiment and Mutual Fund Strategies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 699-727, August.
    64. Ben-Rephael, Azi & Kandel, Shmuel & Wohl, Avi, 2011. "The Price Pressure of Aggregate Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 585-603, April.
    65. Ben-Rephael, Azi & Kandel, Shmuel & Wohl, Avi, 2012. "Measuring investor sentiment with mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 363-382.
    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. Arbab Khalid Cheema & Wenjie Ding & Qingwei Wang, 2023. "The cross-section of January effect," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 513-530, October.

    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. Jank, Stephan, 2012. "Mutual fund flows, expected returns, and the real economy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3060-3070.
    2. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, December.
    3. Degenhardt, Thomas & Auer, Benjamin R., 2018. "The “Sell in May” effect: A review and new empirical evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 169-205.
    4. Arbab Khalid Cheema & Wenjie Ding & Qingwei Wang, 2023. "The cross-section of January effect," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 513-530, October.
    5. Praveen Kumar Das & S P Uma Rao, 2011. "Value Premiums And The January Effect: International Evidence," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(4), pages 1-15.
    6. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2013. "Understanding Asset Prices," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2013-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    7. Chui, David & Wing Cheng, Wui & Chi Chow, Sheung & LI, Ya, 2020. "Eastern Halloween effect: A stochastic dominance approach," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Liston, Daniel Perez, 2016. "Sin stock returns and investor sentiment," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-70.
    9. Zhang, Cherry Y. & Jacobsen, Ben, 2021. "The Halloween indicator, “Sell in May and Go Away”: Everywhere and all the time," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    10. Chen, Zhongdong & Schmidt, Adam & Wang, Jin’ai, 2021. "Retail investor risk-seeking, attention, and the January effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    11. Sun, Qian & Tong, Wilson H.S., 2010. "Risk and the January effect," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 965-974, May.
    12. Fernando Rubio, 2005. "Eficiencia De Mercado, Administracion De Carteras De Fondos Y Behavioural Finance," Finance 0503028, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Jul 2005.
    13. J. Annaert & W. Van Hyfte, 2006. "Long-Horizon Mean Reversion for the Brussels Stock Exchange: Evidence for the 19th Century," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/376, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    14. Qadan, Mahmoud & Kliger, Doron, 2016. "The short trading day anomaly," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 62-80.
    15. Praveen Kumar Das & S. P. Uma Rao, 2012. "Is The Value Effect Seasonal? Evidence From Global Equity Markets," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 6(2), pages 21-33.
    16. Stefanescu, Răzvan & Dumitriu, Ramona, 2020. "Introducere în analiza anomaliilor calendaristice, Partea a doua [An Introduction to the Analysis of the Calendar Anomalies, Part 2]," MPRA Paper 97961, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Rakowski, David & Yamani, Ehab, 2021. "Endogeneity in the mutual fund flow–performance relationship: An instrumental variables solution," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 247-271.
    18. Kang, Johnny & Pekkala, Tapio & Polk, Christopher & Ribeiro, Ruy, 2011. "Stock prices under pressure: how tax and interest rates drive returns at the turn of the tax year," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 43096, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. John Y. Campbell, 2000. "Asset Pricing at the Millennium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1515-1567, August.
    20. Brown, Stephen J. & Sotes-Paladino, Juan & Wang, Jiaguo(George) & Yao, Yaqiong, 2017. "Starting on the wrong foot: Seasonality in mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 133-150.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual funds; Fund flows; Return seasonality; Price pressure; Feedback trading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    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:eee:jbfina:v:144:y:2022:i:c:s0378426622002035. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.