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Mutual Fund Fire Sale

Updated quarterlyData needs: mediumshort onlylong only
paper
2007
Source
Coval, J.D., Stafford, E. (2007). "Asset Fire Sales (and Purchases) in Equity Markets." Journal of Financial Economics, 86, 479-512.
Read the paper →

In plain terms

When mutual funds get hit with redemptions, they dump stocks regardless of fundamentals. The press lasts 20-40 days (short opportunity), then prices recover over the next 60-180 days (long opportunity). The 13F-aggregate drop in filers and shares is our proxy for outflow-driven distress.

How it works

Mutual fund outflow-driven liquidations push prices below fundamentals (the 'press' leg, days 0-40) and then mean-revert over the subsequent 60-180 days (the reversion leg — CS's main published alpha of ~7-10%). Joint-bottom-quintile drops in both 13F filer count and shares (per the aggregate table) proxy for the outflow-driven distress.

Live results

2 times picked on its own · 15 times inside a blend (5 beat the stock) · updated 2026-06-06
This strategy is a frequent ingredient in blends that combine a few strategies on one stock. It has contributed to 15 such blended picks (5 of which beat simply holding the stock). Picking it on its own is only one of the ways it shows up.
How its picks scored vs. buy & hold
Each pick is graded on a recent year it was never tuned on, against simply owning the same stock
Where its edge concentrates
Share of picks in each company-size group that beat buy & hold
How often it trades
Active vs. patient. Bars on the left mean it waits for rare setups; bars on the right mean it trades often
Return vs. buy & hold
How much each pick beat or trailed simply owning the stock over the test year (extreme microcap moves trimmed)
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Data dependencies

  • Daily prices

    Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.

  • SEC 13f aggregate

    A data feed this strategy reads, refreshed on its normal schedule.

Expected edge

Reported return
~7-10% reversion long (CS 2007)
Tested over
Press: T+45 to T+85d; Reversion: T+135 to T+225d

~7-10% on reversion long over 60-180d (CS 2007 published alpha); ~-3% on short press leg.

Example tickers where this is likely to fire

Illustrative only, the signal fires based on the live data, not a fixed list.

Related families

Explore Mutual Fund Fire Sale on alphactor.ai

See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.

For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Learn more