An arbitrage pricing approach to evaluating mutual fund performance

A test procedure, derived from arbitrage pricing theory, that permits the measurement of the security selection performance of professional portfolio managers is developed and applied to a sample of mutual funds over the period of the 1970's. The evidence indicates that more than one factor was present in the market during that interval as a systematic influence on the profile of securities returns. Consistent with prior studies, the evidence also suggests that mutual fund portfolios did not outperform a passive buy‐and‐hold investment strategy. A comparative analysis of the same data, using performance measures based on the single‐factor market model, produces similar but less powerful results, both in the aggregate and at the individual fund level.