H funds’ extensive use of derivatives, short selling, and leverage and their dynamic trading strategies create significant nonnormalities in their return distributions. Hence, the traditional performance measures fail to provide an accurate characterization of the relative strength of hedge fund portfolios. This paper uses the utility-based nonparametric and parametric performance measures to d...

We test the hypothesis that capacity constraints significantly influence hedge fund families’ decision to open new funds. Hedge fund families face diseconomies of scale because of the non-scalability of their investment strategies. We propose that as the existing funds approach critical size, hedge fund families may prefer opening new funds rather than accepting new investment in the existing f...

This paper provides new evidence supporting the rationality of closed-end fund discounts by analyzing the time-series dynamics of individual fund discounts and their relation to portfolio performance and manager turnover. We show that discount changes reflect rational investor learning about fund manager skills, as well as investor anticipation of manager replacement events. Specifically, prior...

Article history: Received 11 October 2012 Accepted 6 May 2014 Available online 4 June 2014 We analyze mutual fund flow–performance relationship using a novel sample of Chinese mutual funds that trade in a volatile market environment. Consistent with existing literature, we find that the net flow to a fund is positively related to past fund performance. However, the positive flow–performance rel...

This thesis applies a Partial Integral Differential Equation model, along with a Monte Carlo approach to quantitatively analyze the no arbitrage value of hedge fund performance fees. From a no-arbitrage point of view, the investor in a hedge fund is providing a free option to the manager of the hedge fund. The no-arbitrage value of this option can be locked in by the hedge fund manager using a ...

I document a positive relationship between excess cash holdings of actively managed equity mutual funds and future fund performance. The difference in returns of portfolios of high and of low excess cash funds amounts to over 2% annually, or approximately 3% after standard risk adjustment. I study whether this difference in performance can be explained by the differences in managerial stock sel...

The average level and cross-sectional variability of fund alphas are estimated from a large sample of mutual funds. This information is incorporated, along with the usual regression estimate of alpha, in a (roughly) precision-weighted average measure of individual fund performance. Substantial ‘‘learning across funds’’ is documented, with significant effects on investment decisions. In a Bayesi...

Mutual funds change their risk levels significantly over time. Risk shifting might be caused by ill-motivated trades of unskilled or agency-prone fund managers who trade to increase their personal compensation. Alternatively, risk shifting might occur when skilled fund managers trade to take advantage of their stock selection and timing abilities. This paper investigates the performance consequ...

Should individuals include actively managed mutual funds in their investment portfolios? They should if and only if the result of active management is superior performance due to skill. This paper employs a previously ignored statistical technique to detect whether skill drives the superior performance of some mutual funds. This technique, the generalized binomial distribution, models a sequenc...

Presumably, hedge fund managers pursue unique strategies because they have great new ideas and superior investment skills, while less skilled managers are more likely to herd and follow publicly known investment ideas. For investors, knowing how innovative and skillful their managers are is thus extremely important but very difficult because of the opaque nature of hedge fund operations. In thi...