Performance Evaluation of Mutual Funds

Abstract

Abstract : The investment performance of mutual fund managers has been extensively examined in the financial literature. Most of these studies employed methods developed by Sharpe, Treynor, and Jensen. Such investigations assume that the risk level of the portfolio under consideration is stationary over time, and they focus exclusively on a fund manager's security selection skills or lack thereof. This project will discuss the theory behind these measures, their advantages and their weaknesses. We will also show how to apply these measures to real-life data to test whether mutual fund managers are able to beat the market. Our data consists of nine years of return (1982–1990) of 23 mutual funds managed under the regulations of the United Kingdom. Applying the above measures and using the Wilshire 5000 as the market portfolio, we were able to conclude that, on average, the funds were not able to beat the market during the period under consideration