On Mutual Fund Investment Styles

Most mutual funds adopt investment styles that cluster around a broad market bench-mark. Few funds take extreme positions away from the index, but those who do are more likely to favor growth stocks and past winners. The bias toward glamour and the tendency of poorly performing value funds to shift styles may reflect agency and behavioral considerations. After adjusting for style, there is evidence that growth managers on average outperform value managers. Though a fund's factor loadings and its portfolio characteristics generally yield similar conclusions about its style, an approach using portfolio characteristics predicts fund returns better.