Profitability Analysis of Mutual Funds

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong></p><p>Defining the best way of investment is an important and demanded theme. One of the ways of investing your money and multiplying your wealth is using a mutual fund. Mutual fund is a way of collective financial investment, which goal is to multiply wealth during a period of time.&nbsp; The capital of the fund is operated by money managers, which use it to purchase stocks, bonds and other types of securities, generating gain. The funds are raised from a number of individual and institutional investors. The first mutual fund was founded in USA in 1924 and it operates up to now. Mutual funds&rsquo; industry got an active development through the past 90 years. The number of assets under management of mutual funds increases steadily, hence the popularity of mutual funds as a way of investment also increases. The issue of defining the best fund and the most profitable one is widely discussed among investors and researchers. The three factor Fama-French model is often used to analyze the profitability of mutual funds This model allows to analyze different funds and define the most profitable ones and the most effective. However, this model has been mostly tested on the US market and other markets with developed national economies. The main object of this paper is to test the three factor Fama-French model using data from countries with emerging economies, on the example of Russia and China. Having the results of the test we can evaluate applicability of this model for emerging markets. In case, this model shows high explanatory power, it can be used on markets with emerging economies to analyze profitability of mutual funds. The objectives of the study are the following: overview of the industry of mutual funds and defining the main tendency, overview of the literature on the theme of profitability analysis of mutual funds, defining relevant data from Russia and China required for testing Fama-French three factor model, testing the model, comparison the results obtained from Russia and China and comparison with the evidence from other countries, defining the course of further research<br />&nbsp;</p>