Analyzing the Ability of Investment Managers in Equity Mutual Funds during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

Mutual fund is one of the investment instruments widely used as an investment option. There are two essential things to be considered by the Investment Manager as a mutual fund manager: the stock selection and the market timing ability. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many investors to experience potential investment losses. Understanding stock selection and market timing will be needed for determining which Investment Managers perform well in managing equity mutual fund, especially while dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to analyze the ability of Investment Managers to perform stock selection and market timing, the performance of equity mutual fund, and the effect of stock selection and market timing ability on the performance of equity mutual fund in Indonesia. This study applies the Fama net selectivity methods to assess stock selection ability and Treynor-Mazuy and Henriksson-Merton models to analyze market timing ability. Sharpe, Treynor, and Jensen's alpha methods are also used for measuring mutual fund performance. The data is processed per mutual fund to recognize each mutual fund's stock selection and market timing ability. Furthermore, the research spans two time periods: before and following the Covid-19 pandemic. A dataset of 104 equity mutual funds from 2016-2021 has been analyzed. The findings show that only 9 and 12 Investment Managers have stock selection ability prior to and following the Covid-19 pandemic, respectively. According to Treynor Mazuy model, there are only two Investment Managers with market timing ability prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and only twelve Investment Managers have market timing ability during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Henriksson-Merton model. Every mutual fund with stock selection ability outperformed the benchmark. However, not all equity mutual fund with market timing ability outperformed the benchmark.