Author:
Oehler Andreas,Höfer Andreas,Horn Matthias,Wendt Stefan
Abstract
Purpose
Retail investors use information provided by mutual fund rating agencies to make investment decisions. This paper aims to examine whether the ratings provide useful information to retail investors by analyzing the rating migration and closure risk of mutual funds that received Morningstar’s mutual fund ratings from 2005 to 2012.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design differentiates between buy-and-hold investment strategies and dynamic investment strategies. To assess the information content of mutual fund ratings for buy-and-hold investment strategies, the rating migration based on the first and the last mutual fund rating during two-, four-, six- and eight-year horizons is determined. With respect to dynamic investment strategies, the number of rating changes per fund on a monthly basis during these time horizons is calculated.
Findings
Mutual fund rating persistence is low or even inexistent, in particular, during longer time periods. Only for lower-rated funds, the rating appears to indicate higher risk of fund closure. In addition, mutual funds face a large number of up to 38 monthly rating changes in the eight-year window.
Originality/value
Mutual fund rating persistence has hardly been analyzed for funds offered to retail investors so far. This paper clearly points out that because of the extensive rating migration and the high number of monthly rating changes, retail investors barely benefit from using mutual fund ratings.
Subject
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
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