One of the easiest ways to mess up your investment portfolio is by tinkering with it too much.
That's when pesky fees and human error tend to drag down performance. Unless you get super lucky, this common mistake can turn into an expensive double-whammy.
Investors in China apparently didn't get this "less is more" memo.
Eighty-one percent of retail investors in China surveyed by State Street said they trade at least once a month. That's the highest of any country on the planet. Likewise, 73% of investors in Hong Kong said they trade monthly or more often in stocks, bonds, currencies and other securities.
Those are very high figures, especially considering just 53% of Americans and 32% of French investors say they trade monthly or more often.
"In the majority of cases, this does not work out to the benefit of the investors. Frequent trading destroys the value of your portfolio," said Suzanne Duncan, global head of research at State Street's Center for Applied Research.
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She pointed to fees tied to each transaction as well as the tendency for investors to buy high and sell low.
In other words, American investors should not emulate their Chinese peers in this financial strategy. It's telling that only 3% of Chinese investors told State Street they feel prepared to meet their financial goals, compared with 20% of U.S. investors.