Abstract Since Markowitz (1952) proposed modern portfolio theory to evaluate the correlation between investment returns and risk, a portfolio constructed by securities (mainly stocks and bonds) is called¡¨ security portfolio¡¨, which becomes popular and recognized to the financial market. Mutual funds are one of the security portfolios managed by investment professionals. To maximize the portfolio return by choosing a combination of stocks and bonds, to decide an adequate investment philosophy, strategy, process and asset reallocation, are key elements of obtaining considerable returns with limited risk and main standard of manifesting the quality and capability of fund managers. The past performance of funds is publicly available, which is scrutinized to decide what to purchase or redeem. Many studies about evaluation of portfolio performance focus on fund performance. Nevertheless recent researches focus on fund flows instead. In this study, we will examine variables that influence flows of open-ended equity mutual funds in Taiwan and have a better understanding of investor behaviors of purchasing or redeeming. We first identify variables that influence fund flows and then employee those to analyze the influence in between. We discovered that the investors are more zealous in chasing previous winners based on the short-term performance, approximately 3 to 6 months. However, once the performance of the invested fund improves for the past 12 months they trend to redeem shares to realize profit. Furthermore, they review risk before making the decision, but ignore it after investment. Investors incline to buy or sell funds of high £] and are more susceptible to related expenses and react negatively to funds that require high expense. Investors are significantly willing to invest funds that are actively traded.

This thesis consists of one hedge fund study and two credit default swap (CDS) studies. The first study investigates the relationship between mega hedge funds (the largest 25% of funds) and two bond yields (U.S. Treasury yield and Baa yield). Using a merged sample of 9,725 hedge funds from 1994 to 2012, I find that hedge fund outflow produced a more significant relationship than inflow, and the dollar outflow of large hedge funds can predict the increase in the bond yields. The association is also more pronounced for large funds with a short notice period prior to redemption. The results suggest that hedge fund flows provide predictive information for the movement of bond yields. The second study investigates the systematic and firm-specific credit and liquidity risks of CDS spreads. Using data on CDS spreads of 356 U.S. firms from 2002 to 2011, I find that systematic credit and liquidity risks are important in cross-sectional prediction of CDS spreads. In addition, the importance of systematic liquidity risk becomes substantial since the financial crisis in 2007. This finding challenges the current Basel III procedures for counterparty credit risk regulations, in which only pure default should be used. In addition, the systematic credit and liquidity factors can be used as a proxy for CDS spreads of firms that do not have traded CDSs. The last study extends Carr and Wu (2010), in which deep out-of-the-money (DOOM) put options and CDSs are associated as they both provide credit insurance for credit protection buyers. Using the Nelson-Siegel (1987) model, I obtain the credit and illiquidity components for DOOMs and CDSs over the period from May 2002 to May 2012. I show that, after controlling the factors that explain the difference between the DOOM and CDS markets, the components converge over time in these two markets. Thus, I can exploit the observed convergence pattern by constructing a simple trading strategy, and this benchmark strategy produces a positive return. I further construct two other strategies based on the component information, and these two refined strategies outperform the benchmark strategy by the Sharpe ratio and Carhart alpha. My three studies contribute to the literature in hedge fund systemic risk and CDS credit and liquidity risks.

近年基金投資已然成為一般民眾重要的理財工具之一，而投資人最關注的顯然是基金績效的好壞，以及前績效好的基金在未來能否持續先前好的績效表現。因此本論文主要探討台灣的開放式股票型基金之績效、基金績效的持續性，以及投資人買賣基金的行為與基金績效之間的相互影響。論文第一部份是從隨機變數的觀點評估台灣的開放式股票型基金其夏普指標績效值，第二部份則以一般化的馬可夫模型－「漂移者—停駐者」模型評估基金績效持續性的動態行為，第三部份討論投資人的現金流量和基金績效之間的關聯性。 在第一部份的實證結果中，我們認為過去對夏普指標高的基金其績效較佳之想法必須修正，因為從隨機變數的觀點衡量基金的夏普指標值時，所有基金的績效均不顯著異於0。若與市場指數的夏普指標相比，並非所有基金經理人都能打敗市場，雖然以五年評估期間衡量基金績效時，有半數以上的基金其績效顯著優於市場指數，但在二年評估期間下只有極少數基金的績效顯著優於市場。第三，以拔靴法模擬基金的小樣本夏普指標分配時，仍然無法找到基金績效顯著大於零的證據。整體而言，本部份的研究認為從隨機變數的觀點衡量基金的夏普指標績效時，台灣的開放式股票型基金其績效超越市場的證據並不強。 第二部份以「漂移者—停駐者」模型衡量基金績效的動態持續性之實證結果，我們發現整體基金市場具有某種程度的績效持續性，但績效持續性的強弱程度隨著績效組別的不同而有差異，表現最佳與最差兩組基金的績效持續性高於績效中等基金，但整體基金的績效持續性並不很明顯。另外，績效最差組別的停駐基金比率為各組中最高，代表該組別基金的績效持續性較強。第二，基金績效持續性因績效指標的不同而有差異，主要差異反映在各績效組別裡停駐基金比率的估計。第三，「存活偏誤」的確對基金績效持續性的結果有影響，但主要影響反應在停駐基金比率的估計，而非績效漂移基金的轉換機率。第四，以概度比檢定驗證單純馬可夫鏈模型與「漂移者—停駐者」模型對資料的配適程度時，發現「漂移者—停駐者」模型較適合分析台灣開放式股票型基金的績效持續性。 就第三部份基金績效與投資人現金流量的討論，第一，實證結果支持台灣的開放式股票型基金其績效具有持續性，但整體市場的績效持續性並不顯著，其中季資料下基金績效的持續性證據最強，此部份與論文第二部份的結論一致。第二，前一季績效佳的基金在下一季能吸引投資人較多的現金流量，但是放入市場報酬率作為解釋因子後，我們發現投資人的現金流入隨著市場報酬率的上升而提高、隨著基金報酬率的增加而減少，因此投資人買賣基金的主要考量似乎是以市場整體走勢為主，而非基金前期績效。第三，投資人買賣基金的活動對基金後續績效並無影響，這可能是基金經理人的持股比率高於法令規定，或是投資人買入贖回基金的活動對績效的影響通常在數日內即已反應完畢。最後，討論經理人的流動性交易及訊息交易對基金後續績效的影響之前，我們發現基金前期績效的持續大約維持兩個月，但是加入流動性交易及訊息交易作為解釋變數後，基金績效的持續性減弱。 / Mutual funds have been a popular investment vehicle in recent years regardless of the growth of fund assets or numbers of beneficiaries. What investors mind are that whether mutual funds can provide higher return than others, star managers can persist previous dominant performance. For the reasons, we try to examine the performance of Taiwan mutual funds by Sharpe ratio index from new insights, and study mutual fund within best performance group can maintain antecedently superior performance. Finally, we attempt to investigate the relationship between fund performance and fund flows of open-ended stock fund in Taiwan. 1. We analysis the statistical distribution of the Sharpe ratio in Taiwan Mutual Funds developed by Lo(2002) and explore fund performance. First, we construct the confidence intervals of Sharpe ratio of Taiwan stock funds under different assumption for the return-generating process is independently and identically distributed returns (IID) and Non-IID but stationary, then, annualize Monthly Sharpe ratios by Time Aggregation technique. To avoid small sampling errors, we utilize bootstrap sampling conception to simulate the small sample distribution of Sharpe ratio of stock funds. We find that (1) there are not significant evidences that mutual funds in Taiwan have superior performance than riskless rate or market returns in several conditions. (2)By Bootstrapping sampling technique, we still cannot find stock funds have comparatively better performance than market indexes from empirical result. Accordingly, we believe that the usual methods about Sharpe ratios must be modified. That is, a mutual fund with higher Sharpe ratio is not necessarily a good performance, absolutely. Cause, Sharpe ratio index is not a constant, but a random variable, and we must build up its interval estimation and then test if there are significant differences between funds performance. Consequently, we argue it is relatively important to construct the performance-ranking system of mutual funds similar the bond credit-rating. 2. We employ the mover-stayer model to study the dynamics of performance persistence of mutual funds in Taiwan. This model provides us more detailed information about and help us further understand the nature of mutual fund performance persistence. We find (1) that there exists certain degree of persistence in mutual fund performance. Such persistence is, however, not very significant. It is because most funds are mover funds with unstable performance rather than stayer funds with consistence performance. More interestingly, funds within the best and the worst performance groups have more persistent performance than those within the middle performance group. It implies that in view of the previous mediocre performance, fund managers within the middle group have strong intention to improve their future performance. In addition, the fact that the worst performance group has the highest proportion of stayer funds implies that losers are more persistent than winners in Taiwan mutual fund industry. Overall, mutual funds in Taiwan have only weak performance persistence. (2) that consistent with the literature, the degree of persistence in performance is dependent on the performance evaluation criteria. It seems that this difference of degree of persistence is reflected in the estimation of stayer fund proportion, not in the estimation of the transition probability matrix of mover funds. (3) that there exists survivorship bias in our study. It mainly influences the estimation of stayer funds proportion, not that of the transition probability matrix of mover funds. Having said that , we believe that this bias will not alter the important conclusions of this article. 3. This part studies three important issues including the performance persistence of mutual funds, the relationship between mutual fund performance and investor fund flows, and the influence of investor fund flows on the performance of mutual funds. Our analyses are based on the data of mutual funds in Taiwan with three different frequencies that include monthly, quarterly, and yearly data. The methods we utilize to perform the analyses are those from Gruber (1996) and Edelen (1999). There are three main findings in this article: (1)During the sample period from 1996 to 2004, the evidence on the performance persistence of mutual funds in Taiwan is at best weak regardless of various risk-adjusted models and data frequencies. In sum, mutual funds in Taiwan do not perform persistently no matter how their performance is measured. (2)We are not able to discover a significant relationship between mutual fund performance and investor fund flows based on monthly data. This result is not consistent with that of Gruber (1996). However, this relationship becomes stronger if we look at quarterly data. In addition, the most interesting thing is that it seems that it is the quarterly stock market return that derives most of investor fund flows rather than the quarterly mutual fund performance itself. This result implies that the key factor for investors to decide whether to invest more capital into mutual funds is the overall market performance. In other words, the market sentiment may be the most importance factor that induces investors to purchase or sell mutual funds. (3) In contrast to the results of Edelen (1999), the liquidity-trading of fund managers induced by investor fund flows does not have a significant adverse effect on fund performance. Interestingly, the contemporaneous information-trading of fund managers has significant negative impact on fund performance while that in the previous month actually improves fund performance. Furthermore, the performance persistence normally lasts for two months but it diminishes when we incorporate both the liquidity-trading and information-trading of fund managers into the regressions.

本研究探討2001年1月至2016年12月內所有以台股市場為標的之開放式股票型基金，透過多元迴歸模型與交易策略法深入的了解資金流量與過去和未來一期報酬率之間的關聯性，並從中探討台灣投資人的行為偏好。 透過多元迴歸模型與交易策略法可以發現代表台灣投資人投資偏好的資金淨流量變動率普遍有追逐過去績效表現優異之基金的傾向，接著探討資金淨流量變動率與未來一期報酬率的關聯後發現，台灣共同基金市場上當期資金淨流量變動率越高的基金，普遍在未來短期內所獲得的報酬率有較低的現象，然而隨著未來報酬期間的拉長，此現象便逐漸消失，最主要的解釋原因為台灣共同基金投資人普遍有追逐過去績效表現優異之基金的傾向，使過去績效表現較好的基金容易湧入過多的申購資金，而這些基金雖然在過去一期該基金經理團隊可以憑藉著自己所擅長的產業與個股經驗，挑選到具有成長潛力的投資標的，但隨著過去一期的優異表現，這些基金的投資組合持股價格已經來到相對高點，難以持續擁有良好的報酬表現，加上基金經理團隊手上仍握有許多等待投資的現金，最終可能迫使基金經理團隊必須開始涉入自己不熟悉的產業與個股，增加錯誤投資的機會而使績效表現變差，然而長期而言，該基金經理團隊仍可以憑藉著自己的專業投資能力，重新尋找到優良投資標的，消化過去湧入的投資資金，改善過去短期績效表現不佳的狀況。 / This study explored all open-ended equity funds targeting Taiwan’s stock market from January 2001 to December 2016. Through multiple regression model and trading strategy method, we got an in-depth understanding of the relationship between fund flows and both past and future returns, and the characteristics of the trading behavior of Taiwan’s investors were further investigated. By using multiple regression model and trading strategy method we found evidence that Taiwan’s investors have the tendency to chase mutual funds which had superior performance in the last period. Following this issue, we also found that funds with higher fund inflow generally had lower return in the short term time horizons, but the phenomenon would gradually disappear when the time horizons were extended. The main explanation of this phenomenon is that Taiwan’s investors generally have the tendency to buy mutual funds which gave superior return in the last period, so that funds with better performance in the past are prone to attract subscription. Although in the last period, these funds’ management team could rely on their own industrial and individual stock-picking experience, selecting those stocks with high growth potential. However, with an outstanding performance in previous period, stock prices in those fund’s portfolio had come to a relatively high point, so it’s hard to maintain good performance. With a vast sum of fund inflow, the management team may also be forced to invest in the industries or companies that they’re unfamiliar with, causing the possibility of wrong investment. However, when the time horizons were extended, the management team could digest the inflow of investment funds by rediscovering good investment targets and improve their fund performance.