A Tax to Curb Excessive Trading Could Be a Boon to Returns - The New York Times

A Tax to Curb Excessive Trading Could Be a Boon to Returns - The New York Times:



Interesting piece--not sure a tax would solve the problems, but ???



"Why do people hurt themselves by trading in this manner? Is it like gambling, with its danger of addiction akin to cigarettes? Maybe a little. A different study Mr. Odean worked on showed that when Taiwan introduced a national lottery, trading on the stock exchange fell 25 percent. So at least people there were able to substitute something else for their wagering activity. Mr. Odean chalks up much of the trading to overconfidence. Most of us think we’re better than the average investor, and men trade more than women. The Internet gives us the illusion of feeling well informed, so we conveniently forget that somebody else read everything we found before we did. Then, we compound the sins by failing to diversify"



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