Russell Wermers consults on asset management matters, including mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds, with a particular focus on trading models, market timing, and performance evaluation. He has testified in multiple proceedings before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and has been retained as an expert witness by private firms, large financial institutions, and the Division of Enforcement at the SEC.
Professor Wermers’s research interests include the efficiency of securities markets and the role of institutional investors in setting stock prices. He analyzes investment strategies and performance evaluation, as well as the information content of analyst earnings forecasts/recommendations and mutual fund portfolio disclosures. Notably, by analyzing asset managers’ portfolio holdings, Professor Wermers has pioneered new approaches to measuring and attributing asset manager performance.
Professor Wermers has published recognized papers in prominent journals. His coauthored article on mutual fund performance was a finalist for the Amundi Smith Breeden Prize for the Best Paper in the Journal of Finance. He also cowrote Performance Evaluation and Attribution of Security Portfolios, a scientific book on evaluating asset manager performance written for both for academics and practitioners. Professor Wermers serves on several editorial boards, including the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Banking and Finance.
Professor Wermers teaches courses in investment management and corporate finance, and has been recognized several times for teaching and mentoring excellence.
A sought-after speaker, Professor Wermers regularly presents on investment-related topics to academic, business, and government audiences throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.