what is window dressing 
window dressing is the term for a strategy used by retailers dressing up a window display to draw in customers the financial industry adopted it to refer to the practice of altering financial data to appear more attract investors businesses can time adjustments in their accounting procedures and investment holdings can be changed at specific times to seem as if they are more profitable have higher returns or have been performing well the entire period specific to investments it is used to refer to how a fund or portfolio manager might buy or sell securities at a particular time to appear to be performing better 