Mutual funds: risk and performance evaluation

This thesis aims to explain what are mutual funds and how they are typically analyzed, in terms of risk and performance. In particular, the thesis is structured in four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction: it defines and describes mutual funds, their advantages and disadvantages, their main typologies and how they are regulated at the European level. The second chapter focuses on the performance analysis of mutual funds and, more precisely, it analyses the risk-adjusted measures of performance. A risk-adjusted performance measure is, in fact, a fundamental instrument for the investor in the choice of the more suitable investment product. The third chapter is a comparison between the active and the passive management of mutual funds. Finally, the fourth and last chapter develops an empirical example of the performance analysis of mutual funds.