A rating grades the past. A rule decides the next trade.
01
A star count is a backward mirror. It ranks the return already banked. Useful for knowing what happened, useless for knowing what holds it next year.
02
Top quarter today is roughly a coin flip to stay top quarter. If yesterday's winners were skill, they would persist. They mostly do not. Chasing last year's badge is buying the part that does not carry.
03
Ask what the fund will do, not what it did. The universe it picks from, the rule that sizes each name, how often it rebalances. A process you can read beats a rating you can only look back at.
A star rating tells you which fund won the race you already missed. The thing worth reading is the rule it will run in the race you are about to enter.