Estilos, Timing e Imitaci 3n en los Fondos Mutuos Accionarios Chilenos Estilos, Timing e Imitaci 3n en los Fondos Mutuos Accionarios Chilenos

This paper studies the apparent lack of value creation by Chilean equity mutual funds, emphasizing the role of their "investment styles" (obtained by combining multiple equity and fixed-income benchmarks, using Sharpe’s (1992) technique) and their determinants. We also search for evidence regarding imitation among mutual funds, of reaction to past returns, and of dynamic timing, using a measure that combines those of Sharpe (1992) and Grinblatt and Titman (1993). We also analyze consistency among the different performance evaluation techniques. Despite the significant variability in asset allocation proportions through time, results confirm that mutual funds do not create value (before fees), considering both security selection and market timing, and that there is imitation considering the finer partitions of the benchmark portfolio. This paper studies the apparent lack of value creation by Chilean equity mutual funds, emphasizing the role of their "investment styles" (obtained by combining multiple equity and fixed-income benchmarks, using Sharpe’s (1992) technique) and their determinants. We also search for evidence regarding imitation among mutual funds, of reaction to past returns, and of dynamic timing, using a measure that combines those of Sharpe (1992) and Grinblatt and Titman (1993). We also analyze consistency among the different performance evaluation techniques. Despite the significant variability in asset allocation proportions through time, results confirm that mutual funds do not create value (before fees), considering both security selection and market timing, and that there is imitation considering the finer partitions of the benchmark portfolio.