A fund that is top quartile over a given period is in the top 25% of funds in its peer group, whilst second quartile funds will be ranked between 26% and 50%.
Categorises funds within a sector into four equal bands based on their performance over a specified period. Top or first quartile contains the top 25% of funds, through to the bottom or 4th quartile which contains the bottom 25% of funds.
Fund rankings broken down into four sections, each of 25%. For example, in a sector of 12 funds, the top three performing funds would be classed as first quartile, the bottom three as fourth quartile, etc.