Every April, investors scan mutual fund rankings to identify the past year’s top performers. The logic seems straightforward—choose the fund that delivered the highest returns and expect the same performance going forward. However, this approach is not just overly simplistic—it can be dangerously misleading. Mutual fund performance is inherently cyclical. A fund that leads the pack one year can easily fall behind the next, and vice versa. This is because market conditions, sector trends, investor behaviour and even fund manager decisions shift over time. Basing your investment decision solely on past rankings is like driving while looking only in the rearview mirror.