Russ Wermers
Associate Professor of Finance
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland at College Park
College Park, MD 20742-1815
(301) 405-0572
(301) 405-0359 (fax)
rwermers@rhsmith.umd.edu

      Daniel, Grinblatt, Titman, and Wermers (DGTW; 1997) Characteristic-Based Benchmarks for U.S. Stocks !

Click for Washington, District of Columbia Forecast

Welcome to my home page! I joined the faculty at The University of Maryland in August, 2000. A brief professional biography follows (a more complete bio is available through my curriculum vitae).

Russ Wermers is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park, where he won a campus-wide teaching award during 2005.  His main research interests include studies of the efficiency of securities markets, as well as the role of institutional investors in setting stock prices. Most notably, his past research has developed new approaches to measuring and attributing the performance of mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds, as well as devising winning strategies for investing in these funds. Professor Wermers also studies the investment behavior of these asset managers, as well as the impact of their trades on stock markets.  His papers have been published in The American Economic Review, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, The Journal of Financial Economics, and The Journal of Finance.  His article on mutual fund “herding” and stock prices (Journal of Finance, 1999) won the NYSE Award for the Best Paper on Equity Trading in 1995. His article on mutual fund performance was a finalist for the Smith-Breeden Award for the Best Paper in the Journal of Finance during 2006/2007. Professor Wermers consults for the hedge fund, pension fund, and mutual fund industries.  He is working on a book on performance evaluation and attribution that is being written with both practitioners and academics in mind. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, during 1995.

Profile:

Research: My current research interests include studies of mutual fund performance measurement, the impact of mutual funds on stock markets, and empirical tests of the efficiency of stock markets.

Paper Title Publication Status Last Update
Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior (with Mark Grinblatt and Sheridan Titman) American Economic Review, December 1995 Published
Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic Based Benchmarks (with Kent Daniel, Mark Grinblatt, and Sheridan Titman) Journal of Finance, July 1997 Published
Mutual Fund Herding and the Impact on Stock Prices (formerly "Herding, Trade Reversals, and Cascading by Institutional Investors") Journal of Finance, April 1999 Published
The Value of Active Mutual Fund Management:
An Examination of the Stockholdings and Trades of Fund Managers (with Hsiu-Lang Chen and Narasimhan Jegadeesh)		 Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, September 2000 Published
Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock-Picking Talent, Style, Transaction Costs, and Expenses Journal of Finance, August 2000 Published
The Potential Effects of More Frequent Portfolio Disclosure on Mutual Fund Performance Perspective, The Investment Company Institute (Supports a Policy Recommendation to the SEC on Fund Disclosure) Published
Investing in Mutual Funds When Returns Are Predictable (with Doron Avramov) Journal of Financial Economics, August 2006 Published
Can Mutual Fund "Stars" Really Pick Stocks? New Evidence from a Bootstrap Analysis (with Robert Kosowski, Allan Timmermann, and Hal White) Journal of Finance, December 2006 Published
Performance Evaluation with Portfolio Holdings Information North American Journal of Economics and Finance, August 2006 Published
False Discoveries in Mutual Fund Performance: Measuring Luck in Estimated Alphas (with Laurent Barras and Olivier Scaillet) Journal of Finance, forthcoming April 2009
Momentum Investment Strategies of Mutual Funds, Performance Persistence, and Survivorship Bias Working Paper March 1997
Patterns of Coauthorship and Research Productivity in Finance Academia (with J. Chris Leach, Ronald Melicher, and Michael Oswald) Working Paper February 2000
Is Money Really "Smart"? New Evidence on the Relation Between Mutual Fund Flows, Manager Behavior, and Performance Persistence Working Paper November 2003
A Matter of Style: The Causes and Consequences of Style Drift in Institutional Portfolios Working Paper (Not yet released)
Are Mutual Fund Shareholders Compensated for Active Management "Bets"? Working Paper March 2003
Portfolio Performance, Discount Dynamics, and the Turnover of Closed-End Fund Managers (with Youchang Wu and Josef Zechner) Working Paper November 2008
Mutual Fund Performance and Governance Structure:
The Role of Portfolio Managers and Boards of Directors (with Bill Ding)		 Working Paper June 2006
The Investment Value of Mutual Fund Portfolio Disclosure (with Tong Yao and Jane Zhao) Working Paper September 2007
Analyst Recommendations, Mutual Fund Herding, and Overreaction in Stock Prices (with Nerissa Brown and Kelsey Wei) Working Paper July 2009
Endogenous Benchmarks (with David Hunter, Eugene Kandel, and Shmuel Kandel) Working Paper January 2008
     
     
     

Teaching: I teach at the undergraduate, MBA, Ph.D., and Executive Education levels as follows. If the course is highlighted in blue, then the syllabus is available for on-line viewing! Please click on the appropriate course to view the course syllabus.

Course Number Course Title Academic Level/Dates Taught
FNCE 4030 (Colorado) Investments Undergraduate/Fall 1994, Spring 1995-2000
FNCE 4820 (Colorado) Seminar in Investment Management Undergraduate/Spring 2000
MBAF 6200 (Colorado) Advanced Corporate Finance MBA/Fall 1995, 1996
FNCE 7100 (Colorado) Finance Theory Doctoral/Spring 1999
FNCE 7200 (Colorado) Empirical Research Methods Doctoral/Spring 1996, Fall 1997
BUFN 702 (formerly Bmgt 702; Maryland) Applied Security Analysis and Portfolio Management MBA/Fall 2000, Spring 2001
BMGT 343 Investments Undergraduate/Spring: 2004-2010
BUFN 700 (formerly Bmgt 743; Maryland) Investment Management MBA/Spring: 2002-2010
Executive Education (FAME Institute, Geneva) Performance Evaluation and Attribution Executives/Fall: 2001-2006

 

Resource page for "Investments" (FNCE 4030) Undergraduate Students.

Resource page for "Seminar in Investment Management" (FNCE 4820) Undergraduate Students.

Resource page for "Finance Theory" (FNCE 7100) for Finance and Accounting Ph.D. Students.

Resource page for "Empirical Research Methods in Finance" (FNCE 7200) for Finance and Accounting Ph.D. Students

Bull or Bear: Where Will 2009 End? Check the Stock Market Today By Clicking Here!

{Bull or Bear--How will 1999 end?}

 

 
The University of Maryland at College Park: "Terrapin Territory !" 

Maps for The University of Maryland at College Park

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My MOSAIC of Useful Web Sites!

Mutual Fund and Hedge Fund Sites:

{Mutual Fund Quotes} {Morningstar Mutual Fund Data}
{Investment Company Institute (a mutual fund industry group)} {CDA-Weisenberger}
{Fidelity Funds} Fund Democracy
{Mutual Fund News} {An investor's site!}
TheStreet.com {FundLaw E-mail Archives}
{Nelson (A Division of Thomson Financial)} {Mutual Fund Newsletter}
{Mutual Fund Cafe--a great information site!} {Morningstar's Institutional Website}
{A Hedge Fund Information Site}

Finance Industry Sites:

{New York Stock Exchange} {Nasdaq}
{Securities and Exchange Commission} {Ibbotson Associates}
{Goldman Sachs} {Association for Investment Management and Research}
{BARRA Risk-Management} {Investment Information!}
{Zacks Investment Research !} {The SEC Edgar Database !}
{Reuters Homepage} {Bloomberg Financial Data Services}
{Bond Market Data!} {Bond Market Data (30-day trial)}
{CFA Exam Preparation !}
{New York Federal Reserve Bank} {Standard & Poor's Micropal}
{Inquire-UK} Economic Information Systems
(free Economic data, such as flow of funds, labor statistics, etc.)
{Inquire-Europe} {Securities Industry Association}
{Retail Investor's Site--Bulletin Boards!} {Interactive Wall Street Journal}
{FAME-ICMB Executive Courses in Geneva}
Ticker Symbol Lookup !!!

Academic Sites:

{Economics Literature Database} {Center for Research in Securities Prices}
{Ohio State Univ Finance Page} {Harvard Business School Cases}
{Worldwide Directory of Finance Faculty} Ivo Welch's "International Directory of Finance and Economics Professionals"
Don Cram's CRSP/Compustat Resource Page at Stanford University Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN)
Resources for Economists on the Internet Search CTAN for TEX-related files and resources
{Social Sciences Research Network} {American Economic Association's Homepage}
{Book Publisher Home Pages} {Citations of Academic Journals}
{Lexis-Nexus Search Database} {Ohio State's Directory of Finance Faculty}
{Wharton Research Data Services} {National Science Foundation}
{Faculty Ratings at CU} {EconLit--Bibliographic References!}
{Burridge Center at the University of Colorado} {Access to Finance and Economics Journals!}
{UMD Library Databases!} {Ken French's Site at Dartmouth}
Great Software Site for Academics! {Academic Software Sales!}
{Baruch University's Trading Room} {Andy Lo's Lab at MIT}
{Bentley College's Trading Floor}

Academic Finance (and Related) Journals:

{Journal of Finance} {Review of Financial Studies} {Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis} {Journal of Financial Economics}
{Journal of Business} {Econometrica} {Elsevier Journals !!!} {Access to Articles}
{Risk Magazine!} {Western Finance Ass'n Homepage} {The Journal of Econometrics} {Journal of Portfolio Management}
{Oxford Press Journals (includes RFS)} {The Journal of Financial Education} {Resource and Energy Economics} {Financial Analysts Journal}
{The Quarterly Journal of Economics} {The Review of Economics and Statistics} {Energy Economics}

Other Media Sources:

{The Economist} {Fortune Magazine} {Newsweek Magazine} {The Washington Post}
{Mutual Fund Magazine Online} {Business Week Magazine} {The Financial Times} {Washington Post Rankings of Schools in Montgomery County}

Travel Sites:

{Cheap Flights}
{Airline Travel Booking!} {UMD-approved travel agent}
{Web Hotel Reservations} {United Airlines Mileage Plus--Book Flights!}
{Amtrak's Homepage} {America West airlines}
{short description of image} {Idaho Outdoors!}
{Creates a map from point "A" to point "B"!} {European Walking Tours}
{Eurail US Telephone: 1-888-227-6795}
{New York City's Homepage!}
{My favorite place!} {The Bowen Motel--my favorite motel in Moab}

Personal Favorites:

{Washington, D.C. Homepage} {Montgomery County Swim League} {Montgomery County youth soccer}
{State of Maryland Homepage} {State of Colorado Homepage} {Homework at Fallsmead Elementary}
{Maryland Outdoors Page !!!} {Denver Post} {Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver}
{Colorado Bicycling Page} {Amazon Books} {List of Concerts in Denver}
{Home Mortgage} {Barnes and Noble Books} {BMG Music Club}
{Wolf Trap {Virginia--Concerts !!!} {Firebird Page} {Ask Jeeves !}
{Search Spaniel (a great search engine)} {Microsoft Visual Foxpro} {Cartoon Web Site!}
{University of Colorado Calendar of Events} {PC Magazine Online}
{Fedex a Package} {Digital Visual Fortran}
{Accessories for Ford Explorers}
{Scientific Workplace} Scientific WorkPlace/Word Unofficial Homepage
{American Century Retirement Services} {Denver Weather Forecast}
{PEPSCO 403(b) Plan} {Price Scan Computer Pricing Comparisons!}
{CSFB Brokerage} {Honda Payments}
{Ameritrade Brokerage} {Bid for Computer Equipment !!!}
{Steamboat Springs Web Site!} {Patents !!!}
{National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying} {Performance Bicycle}
{McAfee Year 2000 Compliance Site}
{Create a web URL site !!!}
{Boulder, Colorado Home Page} {Home Prices, and Other Statistics in Cities Across the U.S.}
{Verizon Wireless Logon Site} {PayPal Mastercard/VISA Transaction Service}
{Register a domain name (this site is better than apply.com}
{Used Coke Machine Broker!} {Performance Diver}
{O'Reilly Computer Books, Programming Support, etc.}
THE ULTIMATE WHITE PAGES {Report Cards on Maryland Schools !!}
{Photoworks Photo Developers} {This site finds the ownership history of any given automobile}
{Giant Bicycles} {Denver Buffalo Company}


{MCI-Worldcom On-Line Billing} {American Collegiate Marketing (Magazines!)}
{Movie Tickets !!!} {short description of image}
{Aetna Healthcare Plan} {Unocal}
{Handspring Homepage} {Compares Prices of Software and Electronics!}

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Click to send me an e-mail message: rwermers@rhsmith.umd.edu

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