Familiarity Breeds Short-Termism
52 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2019
Date Written: October 23, 2019
Abstract
Investors exhibit a robust and systematic pattern of shortening their holding period in a stock on which they execute multiple round trip trades. On average, the holding period shortens by 11% with each additional round trip. I show this tendency to be short-termed is associated with reinforcement learning. Investors are more likely to shorten the holding period after a round trip where they could have realized a better return had they sold earlier. Investors become short-termed as they become more familiar with trading a stock.
Keywords: Short-termism, Individual Investors, Familiarity, Reinforcement Learning
JEL Classification: G11, G41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation