Performance of mutual funds in Turkey: an empirical investigation

Abstract

Professionally managed portfolios are expected to outperfonn maiket portfolio and ordinary investment alternatives. Managed portfolios have to have both excess maiket timing and asset selectivity skills with respect to naive investment strategies. These expectations cause to many research and studies about performance of professional funds. A majority of recent studies have shown that managed portfolios could not perform better perfonnance than market portfolio. In this study, the Turkish case is investigated by examining eighteen Turkish mutual fluids between Januai"y 1989 and April 1992. Various mostly used perfoimance evaluation methods (Treynor, Shaqie, Jensen, Treynor-Mazur, Bhattcharya-Pfleiderer) are used to achieve more significant results and a better evaluation by comparmg the results of different methods. A market portfolio that is more appropriate for measuring perfonnance of Turkish funds is developed. This maiket portfolio also indicates a naive investment strategy of ordinaiy investors. The empirical evidence is consistent with many recent studies. Results show poor mutual hind perfomiance with respect to the market portfolio. Findmgs with different measurement methods are consistent with each other. Market timing and security selection skills found to be weak and support the other results. Findings ai e claimed by significant t-test results.