a. Empirical research indicates that past performance of mutual funds is not highly predictive of future performance, especially for better-performing funds. While there may be some tendency for the fund to be an above average performer next year, it is unlikely to once again be a top 10% performer.b. On the other hand, the evidence is more suggestive of a tendency for poor performance to persist. This tendency is probably related to fund costs and turnover rates. Thus if the fund is among the poorest performers, investors would be concerned that the poor performance will persist.