Stats › Active, passive and flows › Retail performance

Most active US households earned 11.4%, least active 18.5%

Least active: 18.5%18.5%LeastactiveMarket: 17.9%17.9%MarketAverage household: 16.4%16.4%AveragehouseholdMost active: 11.4%11.4%Mostactive

The least active fifth roughly matched the market. The most active fifth lost to it by six and a half points a year, holding broadly similar assets. Source: Barber and Odean.

Individual investors all choose from the same stocks in the same market. Across 66,465 US households from 1991 to 1996, the most active fifth earned 11.4% a year and the least active 18.5%. Trading frequency, not stock picking, explains the gap.

66,465Households studied
11.4%Most active fifth
18.5%Least active fifth
75%Day traders quit by year 2

Members only

The rest of this page is for members

Below this point there are 9 sections, 2 charts and 5 named sources, roughly 1500 words of it. Every figure carries the source it came from and the date the data is from.

You can keep browsing every statistic in the library for free. The intro and the summary are always open.