Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

The Sector Liquidity Timing Ability of Bond Mutual Funds

Yin, Zhengnan orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-5230-7472, O'Sullivan, Niall, Sherman, Meadhbh and Chen, Yuting orcid logoORCID: 0000-0001-7660-4204 (2026) The Sector Liquidity Timing Ability of Bond Mutual Funds. International Journal of Finance & Economics . ISSN 1076-9307

Abstract
We investigate whether bond mutual fund managers exhibit market liquidity timing skills in the U.S. corporate bond market. At the portfolio level, we find only weak evidence that bond funds adjust their overall market exposure in anticipation of changes in corporate bond market liquidity. In contrast, when liquidity timing is examined through sector allocation strategies across investment grade, high‐yield, and mortgage‐backed securities (MBS) sectors, we find strong evidence of high‐yield sector liquidity timing ability—fund managers overweight high‐yield bonds as corporate bond market liquidity improves. Using individual fund level analysis, we find that top‐ranked bond funds demonstrate market liquidity timing skills with respect to both the overall market and all three sectors. Bootstrap analyses indicate that these liquidity timing skills of bond fund managers are unlikely to be driven by luck. Moreover, we find evidence of persistence in sector liquidity timing ability over time, especially for high‐yield sector timing. Finally, these sector liquidity timing strategies help predict future fund performance.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Liquidity Timing
Subjects:Business > Finance
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > DCU Business School
Publisher:John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Official URL:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijfe.7...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:33190
Deposited On:12 Aug 2026 13:09 by Yuting Chen . Last Modified 12 Aug 2026 13:09
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of Int  J Fin Econ - 2026 - Yin - The Sector Liquidity Timing Ability of Bond Mutual Funds.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0
808kB
Metrics

Altmetric Badge

Dimensions Badge

Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record