Ouch Ouch Ouch
Chart o’ the day: Investor Returns
Courtesy of Joshua M Brown
via Bob Doll (Nuveen) via Sam Ro (Business Insider):
Bob Doll ascribes this deficit to market-timing and emotionally driven decisions to move into and out of the markets. Everyone’s a patient, long-term investor until their portfolio drops by 10%, and then it’s game on – commence the switching!
I think Doll’s mostly right on the cause of this deficit, but he should also mention the fact that investors are paying exorbitant amounts of money for active stock picking as well, which works in some years and not in others and over time ends up creating a ton of drag in the form of turnover, capital gains taxes and internal expenses.
This is old news and a helpful reminder that with investing, as with much in life, less is more.
