IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v10y2010i6d10.1057_jam.2009.17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smart money meets smart size

Author

Listed:
  • Qiang Bu

    (School of Business Administration, Penn State Harrisburg)

  • Nelson Lacey

Abstract

We examine the smart money effect from two dimensions – fund size and cash flow based on the US open-end equity funds. We find that positive cash flow portfolios earn significant four-factor alphas, and that there exists a quadratic relationship between positive cash flow fund size and abnormal returns. This is a departure from the pure small fund effect documented in the literature. Putting size and cash flows together, we are able to show that conditional on size, funds with higher cash inflows outperform funds with lower cash inflows, and that conditional on cash flows, smaller funds generally outperform larger funds. We conclude that following the money flows into mutual funds can bring higher risk-adjusted returns, especially when the money flows meet the optimal fund size.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiang Bu & Nelson Lacey, 2010. "Smart money meets smart size," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(6), pages 392-405, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:10:y:2010:i:6:d:10.1057_jam.2009.17
    DOI: 10.1057/jam.2009.17
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jam.2009.17
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jam.2009.17?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. Ciccotello, Conrad S. & Grant, C. Terry, 1996. "Equity fund size and growth: Implications for performance and selection," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12.
    2. Lu Zheng, 1999. "Is Money Smart? A Study of Mutual Fund Investors' Fund Selection Ability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(3), pages 901-933, June.
    3. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2605-2622 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    7. David A. Volkman & Mark E. Wohar, 1995. "Determinants Of Persistence In Relative Performance Of Mutual Funds," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 18(4), pages 415-430, December.
    8. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    9. Edwin J. Elton & Martin J. Gruber & Christopher R. Blake, 2001. "A First Look at the Accuracy of the CRSP Mutual Fund Database and a Comparison of the CRSP and Morningstar Mutual Fund Databases," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2415-2430, December.
    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. Keith Cuthbertson & Dirk Nitzsche & Niall O'Sullivan, 2010. "Mutual Fund Performance: Measurement and Evidence," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 95-187, May.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Nanda, Vikram K. & Wang, Z. Jay & Zheng, Lu, 2009. "The ABCs of mutual funds: On the introduction of multiple share classes," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 329-361, July.
    5. Li, Zhiyong & Rao, Xiao, 2023. "Exploring the zoo of predictors for mutual fund performance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    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. Martin Rohleder & Dominik Schulte & Marco Wilkens, 2017. "Management of flow risk in mutual funds," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 31-56, January.
    8. Darwin Choi & Bige Kahraman & Abhiroop Mukherjee, 2016. "Learning about Mutual Fund Managers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2809-2860, December.
    9. Clemens Sialm & Laura T. Starks & Hanjiang Zhang, 2015. "Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Sticky or Discerning Money?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 805-838, April.
    10. Bessler, Wolfgang & Blake, David & Lückoff, Peter & Tonks, Ian, 2010. "Why does mutual fund performance not persist? The impact and interaction of fund flows and manager changes," MPRA Paper 34185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. 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.
    12. Clemens Sialm & T. Mandy Tham, 2016. "Spillover Effects in Mutual Fund Companies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1472-1486, May.
    13. Keith Cuthbertson & Dirk Nitzsche & Niall O' Sullivan, 2004. "UK Mutual Fund Performance: Genuine Stock-Picking Ability or Luck," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2004 55, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    14. Huij, Joop & Verbeek, Marno, 2007. "Cross-sectional learning and short-run persistence in mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 973-997, March.
    15. Luis Vicente & Cristina Ortiz & Laura Andreu, 2011. "Is the Average Investor Smarter than the Average Euro?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 143-161, December.
    16. Yu, Hsin-Yi, 2012. "Where are the smart investors? New evidence of the smart money effect," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 51-64.
    17. Hamed Yousefi & Mohammad Najand & Licheng Sun, 2024. "The flow‐performance puzzle: Insights from passive and active ETFs," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3623-3656, December.
    18. 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.
    19. Pawel Maryniak & Rafal Weron, 2017. "Habitat momentum," HSC Research Reports HSC/17/05, Hugo Steinhaus Center, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.
    20. Martin Rohleder, 2015. "The Relation between Past Flows and Future Performance: Simple Investment Strategies in the Mutual Fund Sector," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-28, February.

    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:pal:assmgt:v:10:y:2010:i:6:d:10.1057_jam.2009.17. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.