Study Finds Investors were “Blown Away” by Market Volatility in 2018
The nation’s leading investor behavior study over the past 25 years found that the average investor took some money off the table in 2018 but was still poorly positioned for the second half of the year. The average investor was a net withdrawer of funds in 2018 but poor timing caused a loss of 9.42% on the year compared to an S&P 500 index that retreated only 4.38%.
In 2018 the average investor underperformed the S&P 500 in both good times and bad, lagging behind the S&P by more than 100 basis points in two different months. In October, a bad month for the market (-6.84% S&P 500 return vs. -7.97% Avg. Equity Investor Return) the investor lagged by 113 basis points, while in August, a strong month for the market (+3.26% S&P 500 return vs. 1.80% Avg. Equity Investor Return) the Average Investor lagged by 146 basis points.
