On Mutual Fund Investment Styles

Louis K.C. Chan, Hsiu-Lang Chen, Josef Lakonishok

NBER Working Paper No. 7215
Issued in July 1999
NBER Program(s):   AP

We provide an exploratory investigation of mutual funds' investment styles. Funds' styles tend to cluster around a broad market benchmark. When funds deviate from the benchmark they are more likely to favor growth stocks with good past performance. There is some consistency in styles, although funds with poor past performance are more likely to change styles. Some evidence suggests that growth funds have better style-adjusted performance than value funds. The results are not sensitive to style identification procedure, but an approach based on fund portfolio characteristics performs better in predicting future fund returns.

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Published: Louis K. C. Chan & Hsiu-Lang Chen & Josef Lakonishok, 2002. "On Mutual Fund Investment Styles," Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1407-1437.

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