Active Equity Fund Investors Beware The End of Quarter Window Dressing !

Just caught an analyst explaining how the end of the quarter always features active mutual fund managers engaging in "window dressing". What does that mean ? These managers increase their holdings in stocks that have best performed during the quarter. "Even though they haven't owned the stocks during the period when they went up" the CNBC reporter noted "correct" responded the money manager being interviewed.

In other, words that quarterly report from the active fund manager listing his holdings tells you nothing about what he held over the course of the quarter. And you really never know what the fund owns,

Of course non of the above holds for index funds and etfs Although the index fund investors will doubtless benefit from the window dressing particularly a shift from cash to equities. That only holds forever for investors that are not engaging to activity simiilar to the window dressing by purchasing what has gone up in the previous quarter.