3/27/2013
What is the most common investor mistake? Tradingâgetting in and getting out at all the wrong times, for all the wrong reasons. Youâve heard it before: Most investors are their own worst enemies. My dad taught me this investing axiom at an early age. In fact, Dalbar Inc. documented it recently in a report available online called âQuantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior, 2012.â Google it, and youâll see evidence from a 20-year study.
Most mutual fund buyers, for example, badly lag the very funds they buy (and sell) because of bad timing. The average mutual fund holding period for equity or fixed income is only about three years. Itâs too short. Moreover, in the last two decades, stupid switching into and out of funds has cost equity fund holders more than four percentage points in annualized returns and bondholders even moreânearly six percentage points.
The solution, of course, is to trade less.