Investing Research Articles

…the Morningstar mutual fund rating system can probably help investors avoid funds with the worst future performance.

…the combined actions of information traders and trend followers typically eliminate 15-30% of the difference between market valuation and fundamental valuation in a year.

…limited evidence continues to suggest that, in aggregate, stock market gurus tend to anchor on bullish or bearish positions, regardless of actual market trends.

…the Fast Money experts as a group probably do not offer fast money with their stock picks, and their stock-picking ability as a group is unimpressive.

How do financial advisors affect the investing practices of individual investors? Does their advice decisively improve client performance, or are other factors more explanatory? In their February 2009 paper entitled “The Influence of Financial Advisors on Household Portfolios: A Study on Private Investors Switching to Financial Advice”, Ralf Gerhardt and Andreas Hackethal compare the portfolios… Keep Reading

Do hedge fund investors actually receive the returns reported for hedge funds, or does the timing of investments in these funds substantially affect experienced returns? In the March 2009 version of their paper entitled “Higher Risk, Lower Returns: What Hedge Fund Investors Really Earn”, Ilia Dichev and Gwen Yu measure actual hedge fund investor returns… Keep Reading

…traders may be able to exploit information on hedger and speculator net positions in the Commitment of Traders report to time positions in associated commodity futures.

…investors may be able to boost net returns by timing investments according to an index of leading economic indicators. However, success may depend critically on continually adapting the index to current economic conditions.

…investors should generally focus on the earnings estimates rather than the stock recommendations of equity analysts around the globe. Stock recommendations may offer incremental value (only) in countries with weak legal systems.

Capitalization-weighted stock indexes arguably incorporate a performance drag by overweighting overvalued stocks and underweighting undervalued stocks. In their February 2009 paper entitled “Fundamental Indexing: An Analysis of the Returns, Risks and Costs of Applying the Strategy”, Roel Houwer and Auke Plantinga examine the raw and risk-adjusted returns of hypothetical indexes of European stocks weighted by… Keep Reading