Consistently inconsistent

The notion that the past performance of an investment fund should augur how it will fare consistently into the future doesn’t hold up most of the time, according to a new report by S&P Dow Jones Indices. Out of 678 domestic equity funds that were in the top quartile of top-performing funds as of September 2013, only about 4.3 percent remained there by the end of last September. Even a smaller portion of large-cap funds held the high ground, just 1.2 percent. The more time passes, the less likely it is that top-performing funds will hold on to their status, S&P said.