#INVESTOR BEHAVIOR
Men trade more than women in the stock market — and earn less as a result.
Published on August 18, 2026
Barber and Odean studied more than 35,000 accounts at a large U.S. discount broker between February 1991 and January 1997. Men turn over their portfolios 45% more often than women. The result: their net-of-fees, risk-adjusted annual return is 1.4 points lower than women's. The gap widens among singles: single men trade 67% more than single women, for a return 2.3 points lower.
Why do men trade more?
The authors draw on the psychology literature: men show, on average, more pronounced overconfidence in their judgments, which pushes them to act on their convictions more often — without improving their results.
In other words: it isn't being a man or a woman that costs return, it's the frequency of trades that comes with it — every transaction carries a cost that adds up.
Three caveats, because they matter
- The study covers U.S. accounts from 1991-1997, before low-cost brokerage became widespread: the cost gap may have narrowed since then.
- The sample is clients of a broker who manage their own portfolios, not the general population: the results don't automatically generalize to all savers.
- The measured gap is an average: there are women who trade a lot and men who trade little, with the same consequences for both.
Why it still matters: sex here is only a statistical marker for an observable, changeable behavior: trading frequency. Trading less benefits anyone, man or woman.
For you
- How often do you change your portfolio?
- Does that frequency reflect new information, or an urge to act?
Source: Brad M. Barber and Terrance Odean, “Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 116, no. 1, 2001.
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