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Business & Money

35-year-old men 'lousy' investors: Swedish study

Published: 17 Jan 12 14:47 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/38554/20120117/

Stock market success is impossible to predict but according to new research, certain ‘crystal clear’ trends have been discovered.

If you think the typical image of a stock-market sensation is a man in his mid-thirties who invests nearly everything into his shares, then you might be in for a shock.

In fact, statistically speaking, the investor who is least likely to succeed is a 35-year-old man who is entirely invested in stocks, ccording to a new report from the Swedish Institute for Financial Research (Institutet för finansforskning).

The report, authored by Anders Anderson, was based on a survey of 11,000 people from 1999 to 2002. More recent information is unavailable due to bank secrecy.

The results also show that the investor who enjoys the greatest financial success on the markets is typically a man aged 43, with investment capital totaling 2.6 million kronor ($375,723).

Other indicators associated with investment success include the possession of a university education and portfolios with higher diversification.

In addition, women appeared more regularly in the groups of most successful investors than in those that suffered investment losses.

Although the world of investment has changed since 2002, thanks to the stock market crash and the spread of computerized trading, Anderson argues that punters’ psychological confidence remains the same.

He believes that those with the greatest confidence in their abilities don’t understand this themselves.

”I think that most are unaware of this. It’s difficult to save money and buy stocks. And it’s hard to get good feedback on your own share transactions,” Anderson told Sveriges Radio (SR).

“It’s clear that many people in this survey should adopt a more passive approach to the stock market.”

Oliver Gee (news@thelocal.se)

What do you think? Leave your comment below.

Your comments about this article:

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15:27 January 17, 2012 by skogsbo
at least it's all very relevant today, a 3 year window, 12 years ago. Doesn't that mean that those 30 year olds are now in the 43yrs+ catergory and are best investors? Any research is only as credible and current as the data, which this one only shows what the situation was 12years ago.

"It's hard to get good feedback on your own transactions?" if you gain that's good, if you keep losing it's bad. Feedback is generally pretty obvious, you either do better than the average trend or worse.
06:03 January 18, 2012 by skatty
The expectation of market economy is that everybody becomes a stockbroker, and the whole world becomes the stock market!

The man with the age of 35 0f 45 or 12, people should start to by stock from the age of 7, why not and become stockbroker by the age of 9!

The world is moving toward the deep stupidity.
09:40 January 18, 2012 by star10
It is stupid for any individual to believe that he/she is smart enough to outsmart the stock market participants. So the best strategy is just to diversify your portifolio.
09:56 January 18, 2012 by skogsbo
these days the smartest (allegedly) market participants are computers, they do massive calculations every second, which make black scholes look like dagis level stuff, they trade big sums automatically, often for just a few seconds or even less, making very small margins, but with huge sums of money. Doing this thousands of times per day.

They have manual over-ride but this doesn't always act quick enough and there supposedly have been cases of computers selling out to quickly when the market slumps, almost panic selling!
15:15 January 18, 2012 by Roy E
How could such a report be compiled unless Big Brother has you microscope?

The Stasi would be proud of this sort of surveillance.
16:43 January 18, 2012 by skogsbo
roy e, I think you need to read the article before commenting. It was based on a survey, so the data is only a good as the answers to question asked. Secondly the article also states that up to date information is not available due to banking secrecy.

So where is your big brother?
17:59 January 18, 2012 by Roy E
@skogsbo

You are absolutey right! I skimmed right over that. Shame on me.
19:39 January 18, 2012 by bjorkon
But of course the data is all there what with your personnummer and all. The data must enable some really interesting studies to be conducted - for example, your medical records might show that being on a certain drug might make you better at investing (link personnummer here with personnummer there ..), and that people born in 1964 are most likely to pay their taxes on a tuesday.
20:29 January 18, 2012 by skogsbo
bjork, unless you have access to their trading accounts, you won't know what they made or lost. What you pay in tax, won't directly reflect someones ability. It depends on what type of trading they do, which country their accounts or they do their trading are in, or if they have other Swedish income to declare on top.

I would imagine the usual survey to see if you are an actvist, reflector, pragmatist and theorist will show more about the way you trade.
19:32 January 21, 2012 by Just_Kidding
Is it the same age that many 35 years old guys get marry a woman?
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