We studied empirically American no-load equity mutual funds that invest in European stocks and keep their managers for more than three years, in order to investigate the persistence of the short-term performance, and the related investment style. The results showed an underperformance compared to the Eurostoxx index and a 'hot hands' phenomenon does not persist, with some exceptions. Mutual funds that performed well in a five-month evaluation period continued to generate superior performance in the next four months. According to style analysis a portfolio constructed by growth-large, growth-medium and value-large capitalization stocks outperformed any other investment style. However, well-diversified funds were the most mean-variance efficient, style-consistent funds. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.