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Strategies & Market Trends : The Final Frontier - Online Remote Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geotrader who wrote (4169)	5/15/1998 4:20:00 PM
From: Marty Rubin	Respond to of 12617

(BW 5.25.98) STOCK TRADING CAN BE A NASTY HABIT IT'S A STAPLE OF PERSONAL-FINANCE ADVICE: Buy and hold, because trading the stock market is a sucker's bet. But does anybody know just how badly those quick-draw traders are shooting themselves in the feet? Thanks to a just released study by Brad Barber and Terrance Odean of the University of California at Davis, we now know. And the answer is that it's an ugly, bloody mess. The researchers looked at a large, unnamed discount brokerage firm's trading records for 78,000 households from February, 1991, through December, 1996. They found that after commissions and other transaction costs, the average household saw an annual average total return of 15.3%. But the 20% of households classified as frequent traders--more than 48 trades per year--fared miserably, with an annual average net of just 10%. They gave up more than a third of what they might have made. The paper's bottom line: ''Trading is hazardous to your wealth.'' It's a warning that probably should be printed on the side of every new brokerage account kit. Ignore it, and risk turning a thundering bull market into your own meandering cattle drive. EDITED BY ROBERT McNATT Robert Barker Annual Average Total Returns TYPICAL INVESTORS 15.3% FREQUENT TRADERS 10% DATA: BARBER & ODEAN (Just thought you might want to read it. Nice weakend to you and all--Marty-)