Koehler quoted on mutual fund investment

Professor Jay Koehler, of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, was interviewed for a recent Washington Post article titled "Bleak Year Brought Almost No Winners: Average Fund Dropped 30 Percent, But Diversity Saved Some Investors." 

The Jan. 11, 2009, article, by reporter Heather Landy, outlines the sad state of affairs for mutual fund investors, with the worst performing fund down nearly 60 percent and the average financial fund down 42 percent.

Landy quotes Koehler on why investors shouldn't rely on past performance in choosing funds.

"People are definitely attracted to high performance," said Koehler, who has run studies to gauge how investing novices and professionals react to the presentation of mutual performance data. "But hot funds often get a gigantic inflow of money, and then underperform thereafter."

Koehler studies quantitative reasoning in the law, behavioral decision theory, and the psychology of investment. He holds the first, full joint faculty appointment in the College of Law and W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU, and currently teaches the seminar, Probability & Science in Court, at the law school, and a Business Statistics course at the business school.

Judy Nichols, [email protected]
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law