Does the category leader change when you change the window?
In 28 of 35 categories, changing the measurement window changed who was top.
"Category leader" sounds like a stable property of a fund. We measured how stable it actually is, and the answer is: not very. In 80% of categories, the fund leading on one-year returns is not the fund leading on five-year returns.
The measurement
Method
We took every AMFI category containing at least 10 funds with usable one-year, three-year and five-year returns — 35 categories in total. For each, we identified the top-ranked fund on the one-year window and on the five-year window, and checked whether they were the same fund.
We also ranked every fund on both windows and measured, per category, the median number of places a fund moved between the two orderings. Direct-plan growth options, data as of 2026-07-31.
Result: the same fund led on both windows in 7 of 35 categories. In the other 28, changing the measurement window changed who was top.
How far funds move
| Category | Funds | Median rank shift, 1Y → 5Y |
|---|---|---|
| ELSS | 40 | 8 places |
| Large & Mid Cap | 25 | 8 places |
| FoF Domestic | 49 | 7 places |
| FoF Overseas | 27 | 7 places |
| Flexi Cap | 25 | 5 places |
| Index Funds | 40 | 4 places |
| Liquid Fund | 36 | 2 places |
| Overnight Fund | 26 | 2 places |
In ELSS, the typical fund sits eight places away from where the other window puts it — in a category of forty. That is a substantial reshuffle, and it happens without any fund doing anything wrong.
Where the pattern is weakest, and why
Liquid and overnight funds barely move: a median shift of two places. That fits what we found about structurally uniform categories — when every fund earns close to the same market rate, the ordering is nearly arbitrary but also nearly irrelevant, and small differences persist because they're driven by stable things like cost rather than by market timing.
The big movers are the categories where fund choice genuinely matters most: equity categories with wide dispersion. Precisely where a stable ranking would be most useful, the ranking is least stable.
Why this happens
Mostly for the reason covered in our rolling returns guide. A trailing return over any window is dominated by what happened at its start, and different windows start in different market conditions.
A fund heavily weighted to a sector that ran hard four years ago will lead the five-year table and may sit mid-pack on one-year. Nothing about the fund changed. The window did.
The implication for fund selection
A "top-ranked in its category" label carries an unstated window. Change it and the label often moves to a different fund. That doesn't make ranking useless — but it does mean a single rank on a single window is a much weaker signal than the phrasing suggests.
What we haven't measured
This is a cross-sectional comparison of two windows on one date, not a study of rank persistence over time. Whether today's leader tends to still be leading in three years is a different question that needs historical snapshots we haven't yet assembled.
We'd rather state that limit than let a cross-sectional finding be read as a persistence result. They are not the same claim.
Key takeaways
- Across 35 categories with 10+ funds, the same fund led on 1Y and 5Y in only 7.
- Median rank shift between windows reaches 8 places in ELSS and Large & Mid Cap.
- Liquid and overnight funds barely move — but their ordering matters least anyway.
- The categories where fund choice matters most have the least stable rankings.
- This is a two-window cross-section, not a study of rank persistence over time.
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Browse today's scan →This guide reports measured statistics from public AMFI NAV data for a single date. Fund and category names appear only to illustrate a measurement effect and are not recommendations. Past performance does not indicate future results. This is not investment advice.