IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v97y2024ics1062976924000899.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing the nature of fund selection measures: Stock picking or trading skill?

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Ping-Wen
  • Liao, Wen-Ju
  • Lin, Wanling

Abstract

We analyze why fund selection measures, including daily six factor alpha, daily return volatility, and minimum churn rate of a fund within a quarter, predict fund performance. Among these three fund selection measures, we demonstrate that funds with lower return volatility generate better fund performance, portfolio holdings performance, and trading portfolio performance. This result suggests that funds with lower return volatility possess better both stock picking and trading skill. In addition, funds with higher alpha or higher minimum churn rate have better fund performance and better portfolio holdings performance, but worse trading portfolio performance. As we demonstrate that portfolio holdings performance rather than trading portfolio performance mainly contributes to fund performance, our findings suggest that fund investors should pay attention to funds’ stock picking skill more than their trading skill. Moreover, funds’ lack of trading skill helps explain why original funds may underperform copycat funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Ping-Wen & Liao, Wen-Ju & Lin, Wanling, 2024. "Analyzing the nature of fund selection measures: Stock picking or trading skill?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:97:y:2024:i:c:s1062976924000899
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2024.101883
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062976924000899
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2024.101883?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xuemin (Sterling) Yan & Zhe Zhang, 2009. "Institutional Investors and Equity Returns: Are Short-term Institutions Better Informed?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 893-924, February.
    2. Angelidis, Timotheos & Babalos, Vassilios & Fessas, Michalis, 2021. "The economic gain of being small in the mutual fund industry: U.S. and international evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Ľuboš Pástor & Robert F. Stambaugh & Lucian A. Taylor, 2017. "Do Funds Make More When They Trade More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1483-1528, August.
    4. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan, 1992. "The Persistence of Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1977-1984, December.
    5. Yang Song, 2020. "The Mismatch Between Mutual Fund Scale and Skill," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2555-2589, October.
    6. Jun, Xiao & Ren, He & Sun, Ping-Wen, 2021. "Deriving managerial skills by dissecting holding changes of mutual funds: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1589-1622 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2008. "Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2379-2416, November.
    9. Christopher G. Schwarz & Mark E. Potter, 2016. "Revisiting Mutual Fund Portfolio Disclosure," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(12), pages 3519-3544.
    10. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green, 2004. "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1269-1295, December.
    11. Marcin Kacperczyk & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Laura Veldkamp, 2014. "Time-Varying Fund Manager Skill," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1455-1484, August.
    12. Jonathan Ingersoll & Ivo Welch, 2007. "Portfolio Performance Manipulation and Manipulation-proof Performance Measures," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1503-1546, 2007 17.
    13. 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.
    14. DeMiguel, Victor & Gil-Bazo, Javier & Nogales, Francisco J. & Santos, André A.P., 2023. "Machine learning and fund characteristics help to select mutual funds with positive alpha," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(3).
    15. repec:oup:revfin:v:29:y:2016:i:12:p:3519-3544. is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Hao Jiang & Lu Zheng, 2018. "Active Fundamental Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(12), pages 4688-4719.
    17. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    18. Parida, Sitikantha & Teo, Terence, 2018. "The impact of more frequent portfolio disclosure on mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 427-445.
    19. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    20. Ali M. Kutan & Hai Lin & Ping-Wen Sun & Bin Yu, 2020. "A reliable performance measure to differentiate China’s actively managed open-end equity mutual funds," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(52), pages 5592-5603, June.
    21. 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.
    22. Jordan, Bradford D. & Riley, Timothy B., 2015. "Volatility and mutual fund manager skill," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 289-298.
    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. Jun, Xiao & Ren, He & Sun, Ping-Wen, 2021. "Deriving managerial skills by dissecting holding changes of mutual funds: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Yu, Bin & Shen, Yifan & Jin, Xuejun & Xu, Qi, 2022. "Does prospect theory explain mutual fund performance? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Li, Zhiyong & Rao, Xiao, 2023. "Exploring the zoo of predictors for mutual fund performance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    5. Swasti Gupta‐Mukherjee & Ankur Pareek, 2020. "Limited attention and portfolio choice: The impact of attention allocation on mutual fund performance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(4), pages 1083-1125, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Ľuboš Pástor & Robert F. Stambaugh & Lucian A. Taylor, 2017. "Do Funds Make More When They Trade More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1483-1528, August.
    8. Kaniel, Ron & Lin, Zihan & Pelger, Markus & Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn, 2023. "Machine-learning the skill of mutual fund managers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 94-138.
    9. Chen, Fan & Qian, Meifen & Sun, Ping-Wen & Yu, Bin, 2018. "In search for managerial skills beyond common performance measures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 224-239.
    10. 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.
    11. Chang, Xiaochen & Guo, Songlin & Huang, Junkai, 2022. "Kidnapped mutual funds: Irrational preference of naive investors and fund incentive distortion," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Malakhov, Alexey & Riley, Timothy B. & Yan, Qing, 2024. "Do hedge funds bet against beta?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 1507-1525.
    13. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & O'Sullivan, Niall, 2016. "A review of behavioural and management effects in mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 162-176.
    14. Grønborg, Niels S. & Lunde, Asger & Timmermann, Allan & Wermers, Russ, 2021. "Picking funds with confidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 1-28.
    15. Vikas Agarwal & Stefan Ruenzi & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Unobserved Performance of Hedge Funds," Working Papers on Finance 1825, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    16. Hung, Pi-Hsia & Lien, Donald & Kuo, Ming-Sin, 2020. "Window dressing in equity mutual funds," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 338-354.
    17. Jeffrey A. Busse & Tarun Chordia & Lei Jiang & Yuehua Tang, 2021. "Transaction Costs, Portfolio Characteristics, and Mutual Fund Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 1227-1248, February.
    18. Nicolae Gârleanu & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2018. "Efficiently Inefficient Markets for Assets and Asset Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1663-1712, August.
    19. Wolfgang Bessler & Thomas Conlon & Diego Víctor de Mingo‐López & Juan Carlos Matallín‐Sáez, 2022. "Mutual fund performance and changes in factor exposure," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 17-52, March.
    20. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2013. "Mutual Funds," 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 1011-1061, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fund performance; Portfolio disclosure; Stock picking; Trading skill; Fund selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • 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:quaeco:v:97:y:2024:i:c:s1062976924000899. 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/inca/620167 .

    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.