Why recent returns could be a risky guide to mutual fund investing
challenges this approach, highlighting how unreliable recent performance can be for future returns.The study tracked the top 10 equity mutual funds in 2014 and mapped how their rankings shifted annually through 2025. It also analysed rankings based on three-year returnsThe findings illustrate why investors should dig deeper into historical returns, not just stop at funds’ recent performance, and why investors must even go beyond returns for their fund selection.The study does not disclose fund names, instead tracking rank movements over time.
For instance, Fund A, which topped equity fund rankings in 2014 in terms of annual returns, retained the top position in 2015. However, fell sharply to the 128th rank in 2016.Fund B, which was ranked second in 2014, slipped to 37th place in 2015 and further to 141st in 2016.
Fund C, the third-ranked fund in 2014, improved to second place in 2015 and then fell to seventh in 2016, before dropping to 46th position in 2017.By 2018, every single top-performing fund had moved to the bottom quartile.Within categories, too, the story is similar. The study considered the mid-cap category and the top-ranking funds in the category in 2018.The top-performing mid-cap fund in 2018 remained in the same spot in 2019, but slipped to the sixth spot in 2020 and the 17th spot in 2021.
The fund remained outside the top 10 for the rest of the period.The study also looked at rankings based on three-year returns. Did the slightly longer period give more consistency to the rankings? However, the results were similar.Of the funds that were in the top quartile between 2014 and 2017, only 12.5% stayed in the top quartile in 2018.
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