This article utilizes materials from Morningstar’s website to summarize some of what representatives of Morningstar, Inc. say the Morningstar Ratings* can do.1 The Skilled Investor makes no claim that this article exhaustively summarizes all of Morningstar’s commentary on what it believes its star ratings can do, nor does this necessarily represent Morningstar’s best thinking on these topics. Only Morningstar could provide such information. For more information on this subject, please refer to www.morningstar.com. (See also this related article, What does Morningstar, Inc. say its mutual fund stars cannot do?)
Note also, that in 2002 Morningstar, Inc. made significant changes to the methods that it uses to define the star ratings. The Skilled Investor believes that it is important for individual investors to understand how Morningstar defines its star ratings – particularly if that investor uses the stars significant in his mutual fund selection decisions. (See: How the new Morningstar Ratings for mutual funds have been determined since mid-2002)
Morningstar has made the following statements about what its stars can do:
Also, see these related rating service articles about Morningstar:
* The Morningstar Rating is a trademark of Morningstar, Inc. The Morningstar Rating has also been referred to in the media as the Morningstar stars, the star rating, the star rating system, etc.
1) http://www.morningstar.com (Note that morningstar.com is a website for individual investors, and
datalab.morningstar.com is a website for institutional and advisor
clients.)
2) Don Phillips, Morningstar Managing Director, Morningstar Press
Release: “Morningstar, Inc. to Change “Star
Rating”
for Funds – Moving to Category-Based Rating, Enhancing
Risk-Adjusted Return Measure.” April 22, 2002.
http://www.morningstar.com/press/release/item/0,1045,648,00.html
3) Russel Kinnel. “Morningstar’s New Star Rating.
April 22,
2002. http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=14071&_QSBPA=Y
4) Morningstar, Inc. “Fact Sheet: The New Morningstar
Rating(tm)
for Funds.” 2002 http://corporate.morningstar.com/US/documents/MethodologyDocuments/FactSheets/MorningstarRatingForFunds_FactSheet.pdf
5) Christine Benz. “Special Report: Introducing
Morningstar’s New Star Rating.” July 03,
2002. http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=77455&_QSBPA=Y
6) Kinnel, op. cit., April 22, 2002.
7) Morningstar Investing Classroom. Funds 200. “Who
runs
it?” March 22, 2004
http://www.morningstar.com/Cover/Funds.html?topnav=funds
8) Morningstar Press Release: “Morningstar, Inc. to Change
“Star Rating” for Funds – Moving to
Category-Based
Rating, Enhancing Risk-Adjusted Return Measure.” April 22,
2002.
http://www.morningstar.com/press/release/item/0,1045,648,00.html
9) Benz, op. cit., July 03, 2002.
10) Morningstar Press Release, op. cit., April 22, 2002.
11) Kinnel, op. cit., April 22, 2002.
12) “The New Morningstar Rating Methodology”
Morningstar
Research Report, 22 April 2002. page 6
http://datalab.morningstar.com/Midas/PDFs/Research_StarRating.pdf (Note
that datalab.morningstar.com is a Morningstar website for institutional
and advisory clients.)