Standard and Poor's Equity Research Services has unveiled a new mutual fund research product, calling it an 'upgrade' to all current mutual fund analysis systems.

S&P's new product uses bottom-up research to grade holdings, risk, and cost analysis for over 20,00 mutual funds. By focusing on current a fund's earnings, the company claims the new system is more accurate and beneficial to subscribers rather than current "backward-looking analysis," which needs at least three years of fund performance history.

Using a 1-5 rating system, S&P's research device offers "greater clarity and a more robust picture of a fund’s risk/reward characteristics at any given point in time," which will give investors a clearer picture of a fund's productivity than the traditional methods can, especially as traditional strong funds struggle in current market conditions.

“We believe that past performance should be the beginning of the search for a mutual fund - and not the end,” stated Todd Rosenbluth, director at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research Services. “By conducting proprietary holdings-based analysis and factoring in various performance, risk and cost components, the Standard & Poor’s Mutual Fund Rankings provides insight into how a fund is positioned, rather than solely looking at the past.”

Standard & Poor licenses its research to over 1,000 institutions for their investors and advisors. The fund analysis product includes access to four new tools which provide analysis on a "broad range of asset classes including equities, exchange-traded funds, bonds, variable annuities and options in addition to mutual funds," according to a company press release. 

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