Audit whether trading frequency improves family results after costs.

Family Office Private Wealth Journal · Editorial research desk · 2 November 2026

Companion to Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors by Brad M. Barber; Terrance Odean.

Decision in practice

Frequent trading makes the family feel responsive, but activity does not establish value added.

Committee assignment

Compare actual net results with a frozen-holdings counterfactual, separating cash needs, tax trades, policy rebalancing and discretionary timing.

Record and decision rule

Record reasons before execution. Review repeated discretionary trades whose aggregate after-cost contribution is negative.

Illustrative application by the editorial desk. The source authors did not evaluate or endorse this procedure.