Report on past performance not compelling

The IMA's soon-to-be-published report into whether past performance provides an identifiable guide to future performance found what we have all known. Past performance can be a useful element in fund selection. It seems a point so obvious it is almost impossible to believe that there is still a debate on the subject. It is not an infallible guide, of course, but anyone buying into funds on behalf of clients knows they would be a fool to ignore it. In fact, the report was a little disappointing. What its authors, Charles River Associates, revealed was that most commonly, a top quartile f...