Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior

Posted: 7 Sep 1999

See all articles by Mark Grinblatt

Mark Grinblatt

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area; Yale University - International Center for Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Sheridan Titman

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Russ Wermers

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Date Written: September 1994

Abstract

We examine the investment strategies of 155 mutual funds over the 1975-84 period to determine the extent to which the funds purchased stocks based on their past returns, and to determine the relation of this behavior to their observed portfolio performance. We find that about 77% of these mutual funds were "momentum investors", buying stocks that were past winners; however, they did not systematically sell past losers. On average, these "trend-followers" realized significantly better performance than the remaining funds. We also find that the mutual funds exhibited herding behavior, and that the tendency of a fund to herd in its trades was strongly correlated with its tendency to buy past winners as well as with its portfolio performance. Consistent with the evidence on trend-following, herding into past winners was stronger than herding into past losers.

JEL Classification: G10

Suggested Citation

Grinblatt, Mark and Titman, Sheridan and Wermers, Russell R., Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior (September 1994 ). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5686

Mark Grinblatt

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area ( email )

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
United States
310-825-1098 (Phone)
310-206-5455 (Fax)

Yale University - International Center for Finance

Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Sheridan Titman

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Finance ( email )

Red McCombs School of Business
Austin, TX 78712
United States
512-232-2787 (Phone)
512-471-5073 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Russell R. Wermers

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business ( email )

Department of Finance
College Park, MD 20742-1815
United States
301-405-0572 (Phone)
301-405-0359 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~wermers/

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

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