The Stanford University professor who researched and wrote a report about the negative effects of market timing on long-term investors timed the market himself, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Eric Zitzewitz, whose report stated $5 billion per year is lost by shareholders because of the rapid in-and-out trading in funds, timed the market over a three-month period this past summer, The Journal reports, citing individuals who know about the trades.
Zitzewitz did not directly deny the allegations, saying that he didnt engage in any illegal late-trading, and that his position as a business professor does not necessitate conflict-of-interest charges.
The trades he conducted were not illegal, but did result in some disciplinary action at
UBS recently fired two financial advisers and disciplined nine more after an internal probe of mutual fund trading practices found improper market-timing trades at the Swiss bank.
Zitzewitz was not aware of the UBS policy at the time, one of the sources told the paper, and he quickly halted the activity in early September, once regulators launched a full-scale investigation of improper trading practices among mutual funds.
In his report, Zitzewitz urged the fund industry to curb market timing in order to stop punishing long-term investors.
