Buying and Selling at the Wrong Time: Biggest Fund Flows

If investors followed the herd last year, they just may have run off a cliff.

As investors often do (although hopefully not your clients), they often bought when they should have sold.

As you can see from this data, the areas that attracted the most investor interest, and cash, often posted worse one-year returns than the categories that lost investors cash.

Indeed, many segements of the markets incurred major outflows. Investors fled large-cap value and large-cap growth funds, which saw outflows of nearly $32 billion and $28.7 billion, respectively, according to a Cerulli report. Meanwhile, municipal and corporate intermediate-term bond funds were favorites among mutual fund investors in 2015, the firm reports. Foreign large blend funds topped the charts for the year with more than $94 billion in new money, Cerulli says.

Overall, mutual fund assets dropped 2% for the year to $11.85 trillion, according to Cerulli, although performance also contributed to that decline as the index lost ground for the year (a little less than 1%.)

Scroll through to see which Morningstar categories performed the best, and the worst, by their net flows in 2015. For a single-page version, click here.
– Andrew Shilling

Some of the best market segments last year were overlooked by investors, as clients often bought when they should have sold. Were your clients part of the herd?

Some of the best market segments last year were overlooked by investors, as clients often bought when they should have sold. Were your clients part of the herd?