TY - JOUR T1 - Spanish Mutual Fund Misclassification JF - The Journal of Investing SP - 41 LP - 51 DO - 10.3905/joi.2005.479388 VL - 14 IS - 1 AU - Arturo Rodríguez Castellanos AU - Belén Vallejo Alonso Y1 - 2005/02/28 UR - https://pm-research.com/content/14/1/41.abstract N2 - Mutual fund classifications are a tool for defining fund characteristics for marketing and comparison purposes. If fund managers can manipulate the characteristics of mutual fund portfolios for financial incentives, they may convey confusing signals that encourage investors to select funds not appropriate to their needs. Analysis of a database of Spanish mutual funds to see whether funds in the same category are comparable and whether funds in different categories are indeed different shows that 33% of funds are misclassified. This result demonstrates the weaknesses of current classification systems in providing a reliable reference for fund evaluation and selection. ER -